The Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority has described as sad and an attempt to sabotage operations, the ongoing strike by its workers at its Zambian head office in Kapiri Mposhi.
According to a statement by company spokesperson Mr Conrad Simuchile, the action by workers in Kapiri Mposhi is surprising and disappointing. The worker’s strike was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the operations of the company.
The action by the unionized workers who claimed that management is not paying attention to their concerns was surprising and disappointing because the issues raised were already being attended to by management.
The workers had also flouted the procedure for presenting their grievances and that there was no compelling reason to warrant withdrawal of their labour.
Mr Simuchile added that the TAZARA management was urging unionized workers in Kapiri Mposhi who downed tools a week ago to respect procedures and support management in its efforts to turn around the company.
He stated that “It is worth noting that while management is doing all it can to turn around the company, this steady stride towards a turn around is being thwarted by deliberate attempts to sabotage the operations of the company, such as the illegal work stoppages recorded in the recent past in Mbeya, Dar es Salaam and now Kapiri Mposhi.”
It was necessary that the focus management had adopted in turning around the company was embraced by all workers through reasonableness and respect for proper procedures in having particular grievances addressed.
He stated that TAZARA had scored remarkable successes so far in the last one and half years such as the increase in cargo moved by the company from 400,000 tonnes to 600,000 tonnes.
According to Mr Simuchile, “Management believes that even at that level of over one million tonnes per annum, the performance will still be unsatisfactory because TAZARA has a lot of scope for higher performance given the right investments and the right attitudes from all workers.”
(Filed by Mr Kapembwa Sinkamba SteelGuru Correspondent Zambia)
