[i]

© Dr. Evans Chungu & Walamba Inkailwila Titus

First published in Zambia 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book should be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or be transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system
without the written permission from the author, with the
exception of brief excerpts in magazines, articles, reviews, etc.

Published in Zambia by:

University of Edenberg Press
P.O. Box 21041, Kitwe Zambia
Email: infor@ue.edu.zm
Mobile: +260977867401

Cover designed by Bob Stephanas Banda

Typesetting by Peter Mukuma (Zambian Author)
Edited by Walamba Inkailwila Titus

ISSBN: 978-9982-70-906-4
Printed in Zambia by University of Edenberg Press

DEDICATION

[ii]
This is work is dedicated to the gallant men both leaving and
posthumous who rendered their lives to the plight of
workers. Trade unionism has proved to be the lifeblood of
democratic dispensation, hence, we owe the fruits of
democracy to the selfless unionists who ensured and
continue to ensure that the workers are given adequate
representation pertaining to their plight and that mankind
enjoys the fundamental human right. True, revolution does
not come from changing a political system but by
enlightening the illiterate masses. It is hoped that through
this publication, the masses shall enlightened.

[iii]
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Evans Chungu

[iv]
was born in Kawambwa district in 1969 from a very humble
family background his achievements in both the scholarly
world and society in general is a tale of inspiration to many.
His father worked as a locomotive operator, while his
mother was an ordinary housewife who dedicated her time
to raising him and his siblings a duty she obviously executed
with excellence.
Dr. Chungu’s journey to the world of scholars begun at
Chama Primary School where he did his early education
from 1980 to 1986; from there he proceeded to Tea Estate
Day Secondary School where he did his Junior Secondary
Studies from 1987 to 1988. From there he went for his
Senior Secondary education at Nchelenge Secondary
School. Owing to some financial constraints during the
period between 1992 and 1995 Dr. Chungu was inhibited to
attend any institution of learning as he concentrated on
raising funds to further his education, working as a helper in
a carpentry shop and later as a security guard for Mpelembe
properties.
One of Dr. Chungu’s greatest values is determination;
he stalwartly believes that nothing can interrupt the dreams
of an indomitable and strong willed heart. As a result in
1996 he went back to further his studies and was awarded a
Primary Teacher’s Certificate from Mansa College of
Education. This was marked the beginning of his quest for
more epistemological achievements as he enrolled with
Rusangu University formerly Zambia Adventist University
in 2005 and was in 2009 awarded a Bachelor of Education
Degree in Business Studies.
In 2013 he was awarded a Master of Education in
Curriculum Instruction and Education Management by
Solusi University in Bulawayo Zimbabwe. In 2019 the

[v]
University of California conferred him with a PhD in
Education Leadership.
As a scholar he has contributed immensely to the
intelligentsia, and even when most of his peers may assume
his credentials are sufficient he has proved to have an
insatiable appetite for learning new things and innovations.
As a public servant he has worked as a teacher at primary
and secondary levels; as well as senior teacher, deputy and
head teacher respectively. Currently he is working as a
Deputy General Secretary in charge of administration for
Basic Education Teachers Union of Zambia formerly
PETUZ and he also offers adjunct lectures in higher
institutions.

[vi]
WALAMBA INKAILWILA TITUS

Walamba Mulenga Inkailwila Titus was born on 10 Th

December 1984, in
Nchanga North
Hospital in Chingola
district of the
Copperbelt Province
in Zambia. His
Mother Lasiti
Catherine Khunga
was born in 1945 in
Zorokere Village in
Malawi, she worked
as a Community
Development Officer
for Chingola Municipal council, his father was Timothy
Mwaba Walamba born in 1938 in Kasumpa village in
Luapula Province of Zambia, he worked as a Chairman of
the Mineworkers Union of Zambia; Member of the Central
Committee for UNIP under the Kaunda government, served
as Zambia’s High Commissioner to Ghana between 2013 to
2017.
Walamba Mulenga Inkailwila Titus holds a Bachelor
of Adult Education Degree awarded to him by the
University of Zambia in 2014. He is currently pursuing a
Master’s Degree in Education Leadership. He is an
educationist, civil rights activist and he has authored his
reflections on Zambian politics entitled “The King-Maker”,
he has also published several journals.
He has worked as a research consultant for politicians
and scholars; currently he is a Research and Publications
Director for University of Edenberg.

[vii]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

[viii]
It is not possible to produce a work of this magnitude
without the assistances of other great thinkers and veteran
unionists, therefore gratitude is extended to Mr. Mukuka
Cosmas and all the staff at The Zambia Congress for Trade
Union (ZCTU) for providing information that was useful in
making this print, we also acknowledge Mr. Kakunta a
scholar on matters of trade unionism for providing
technocratic guidance. Last but not the least we thank our
family for rendering emotional and moral support, writing
this work demanded that we spend less time with our family
we are grateful for their forbearance.

[ix]
FOREWORD

[x]
 From time immemorial the labor movement has been
at the helm of political agitation, world over. In Zambia, we
have seen the labor movement been a vehicle for the
struggle for liberation from colonial imperialism, on the
forefronts of promotions for political reformations which
culminated in the reintroduction of plural politics. The labor
movement has continued to advocate for the plight and
rights of the workers. Even at the height of the oppressive
one party system, when it was treasonable to form political
parties and worse still make utterances which were
perceived to be in conflict with government. The labor
movement was the voice for the voiceless and the torch
bearer for democratization. The union was diametrically
opposed to Kaunda’s one party system.
The dynamics of politics are that change is inevitable
and constant, with the changes in the politics of the land and
the globe at large there has been a direct impact on the
operations of the labor movement.
Today the labor movement may not appear as
confrontational and vicious as it was during the struggles for
independence and multi-partysm, but the labor movement is
not dead. Today’s unions demands for a certain level of
intellectual propensity and erudition. Today’s collective
bargaining is not done through banging the tables and
political pontifications, but through rational interpretation
and negotiation. Therefore to assume that the labor
movement has lost relevance in the modern society would be
at one’s own peril. A worker who isolates himself from
union affiliation and representation can be likened to an
absurd man who abandons his burning hut to pursue a
fleeing rat. Whatever the challenges the labor movement
may be faced with, it is only through unity, that strength can

[xi]
be harnessed to overcome industrial exploitation and
advocate for the rights of workers.
Democracy is not an isolated phenomenon. Political
democracy, economic democracy, social democracy, and
industrial democracy are not necessarily separate…. They
complement one another and contribute to the overall
development of democracy in our society. Those who seek
to destroy the trade union movement must take their cue
from history, that the workers’ movement can never be
destroyed in modern history. They can only experience
setbacks.

Dr. Evans Chungu (PHD)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[xii]
The Origin Of Labor Unions.............................1

The Labor Movement During Kaunda’s Regime

(1964-1991).....................................................15

The Trade Union During The Chiluba Regime

(1991-2001).....................................................41

Government Policy And The Unions..............49

Union Membership Development And Union

Density............................................................71

The Right To Strike.........................................85

Organisational Strengths And Weakness........91

Workers’ Education.......................................125

Pioneers Of Trade Unionism In Zambia.......181

Bibliography..................................................217

[xiii]
[xiv]
 CHAPTER ONE

THE ORIGIN OF LABOR UNIONS

Introduction
Trade or labor unions can be described as
organized groupings of wage and salary earners with
the purpose of bringing to bear the economic, social and
political interests of their members in labor relations and
the political system. As a new type of organisation
trade unions emerged during industrialization in Europe in
the second half of the 19th century. From trade
organisation of highly qualified skilled workers they
later developed into more comprehensive organizations
of the rapidly growing industrial proletariat, mainly in
the big industry. Not so in colonial Africa. Apart from a
few exceptions such as Tunisia, South Africa and the
British colonies of Sierra Leone and The Gambia,
the formation of trade unions of indigenous African workers
only started during and especially after the second world
war, when the colonial administrations both in British
and French Africa put in place the legal prerequisites for
the creation of indigenous labor organizations.
To date, African labor unions are still dominated by
civil servants. They represent population groups which,
according to their income levels and as employees in
the modern or formal sector, do not automatically
belong to the poorest strata in African societies. In relation

[1]
to the number of employees in the formal economy,
unionization rates are average to high by international
standards. However, if one takes the eco-nominally
active population as a reference, union density levels
become extremely low. Moreover, unionization has been on
the decline since the end of the 1970s.
The predominant historical view is that a trade union
is a continuous association on wage earners for the purpose
of maintaining or improving the conditions of their
employment. Karl Marx described trade unions thus: "The
value of labor-power constitutes the conscious and explicit
foundation of the trade unions, whose importance for the
working class can scarcely be overestimated. The trade
unions aim at nothing less than to prevent the reduction of
wages below the level that is traditionally maintained in the
various branches of industry. That is to say, they wish to
prevent the price of labor-power from falling below its
value.
The origins of trade unions can be traced back to 18th
century Britain, where the rapid expansion of industrial
society then taking place drew women, children, rural
workers and immigrants into the work force in large
numbers and in new roles. They encountered a large
hostility in their early existence from employers and
government groups; at the time, unions and unionists were
regularly prosecuted under various restraint of trade and
conspiracy statutes. This pool of unskilled and semi-skilled
labor spontaneously organized in fits and starts throughout
its beginnings, and later became an important arena for the
development of trade unions. Trade unions have sometimes
been seen as successors to the guilds of medieval Europe,
though the relationship between the two is disputed, as the

[2]
masters of the guilds employed workers (apprentices) who
were not allowed to organize.
Trade unions and collective bargaining were outlawed
from no later than the middle of the 14th century when the
Ordinance of Laborers was enacted in the Kingdom of
England but their way of thinking was the one that endured
during a lot of centuries to inspire more evolutions and
advances through the history to give the workers necessary
rights .
As collective bargaining and early worker unions grew
with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, the government
began to clamp down on what it saw as the danger of
popular unrest at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1799,
the Combination Act was passed, which banned trade unions
and collective bargaining by British workers. Although the
unions were subject to often severe repression until 1824,
they were already widespread in cities such as London.
Workplace militancy had also manifested itself and had been
prominent in struggles such as the 1820 rising in Scotland,
in which 60,000 workers went on a general strike, which
was soon crushed. Sympathy for the plight of the workers
brought repeal of the acts in 1824, although the Combination
Act 1825 severely restricted their activity.
By the 1810s, the first labor organizations to bring
together workers of divergent occupations were formed.
Possibly the first such union was the General Union of
Trades, also known as the Philanthropic Society, founded in
1818 in Manchester. The latter name was to hide the
organization's real purpose in a time when trade unions were
still illegal.
The first attempts at setting up a national general union
were made in the 1820s and 30s. The National Association

[3]
for the Protection of Labor was established in 1830 by John
Doherty, after an apparently unsuccessful attempt to create a
similar national presence with the National Union of Cotton-
spinners. The Association quickly enrolled approximately
150 unions, consisting mostly of textile related unions, but
also including mechanics, blacksmiths, and various others.
Membership rose to between 10,000 and 20,000 individuals
spread across the five counties of Lancashire, Cheshire,
Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire within a
year.
To establish awareness and legitimacy, the union
started the weekly Voice of the People publication, having
the declared intention to unite the productive classes of the
community in one common bond of union. More permanent
trade unions were established from the 1850s, better
resourced but often less radical. The London Trades Council
was founded in 1860, and the Sheffield Outrages spurred the
establishment of the Trades Union Congress in 1868, the
first long-lived national trade union center. By this time, the
existence and the demands of the trade unions were
becoming accepted by liberal middle class opinion.
Trade unions were finally legalized in 1872, after a
Royal Commission on Trade Unions in 1867 agreed that the
establishment of the organizations was to the advantage of
both employers and employees. This period also saw the
growth of trade unions in other industrializing countries,
especially the United States, Germany and France. The
strength of the labor movement at any given moment has
been linked to general economic conditions. In times of full
employment and rising wages, unionism typically loses
some of its appeal, particularly among younger workers,
while in recessionary times it becomes more attractive. By

[4]
the end of the 20th century the globalization of the
workforce had brought new challenges to the labor
movement, effectively weakening collective bargaining in
industries whose workers could be replaced by a cheaper
labor force in a different part of the world.
In the United States the labor movement was also
adversely affected by the movement to implement so-called
right-to-work laws, which generally prohibited the union
shop, a formerly common clause of labor contracts that
required workers to join, or pay service fees to, a union as a
condition of employment. Right-to-work laws, which had
been adopted in 28 states and the territory of Guam by the
early 21st century, were promoted by economic libertarians,
trade associations, and corporate-funded think tanks as
necessary to protect the economic liberty of workers. They
had the practical effect of weakening collective bargaining
and limiting the political activities of unions by depriving
them of funds. Certain other states adopted separate
legislation to limit or prohibit collective bargaining or the
right to strike by public-sector unions. In Janus v. American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
(2018), the U.S. Supreme Court held that public employees
cannot be required to pay service fees to a union to support
its collective-bargaining activities on their behalf.

The History of the Labor Union in Zambia

The genesis of trade unionism in Zambia dates back to

the time of the start of mining on the Copperbelt after huge

[5]
deposits of copper were discovered in the region in the
1920s leading to commercial mining. The establishment of
the copper mines was followed by collective action and
organisation by African workers. The first major strike by
African workers occurred in 1935 and it validated that
African miners were already aware of a common interest
and could organize united resistance against employers. The
strike by African miners prompted European mine workers
to form their own union to protect their interests from the
threat posed by African mine workers. The Northern
Rhodesia (European) Mineworker’s Union (NRMU) was
therefore formed in 1936.
In 1940, the European miners, through the NRMU,
won a wage increase as a result of the increase in the cost of
living caused by the Second World War. The colonial
authorities perpetuated a structure of labor relations based
upon ethnic principles of representation by promoting the
system of Tribal Elders first adopted in the early 1930s, and
by adding to its Boss Boys and Works Committees during
the Second World War. The mistaken view that African
workers were not ready for trade union organisation
remained the official policy.
Trade Unions in Africa are weak organizations
with many internal problems. Trapped between an
ongoing “informalisation” of the African economies on the
one hand and the consequences of “neo-liberal
globalization” on the other, they are quite often seen to be a
relic of the past. Historically, African labor unions, at first
were an importing driving force of the anti-colonial
liberation struggle, before they transformed into
transmission belts of ruling parties and governments
after independence. In exchange for giving up fundamental

[6]
freedoms they received a secured status, secure jobs for their
members and privileges for their leaders. A rude awakening
was caused by the debt crisis in the eighties and the ensuing
economic liberalization, which led to massive job losses
in the formal economy and a strong decline in union
membership. To make matters worse, many governments
started to reform their labor laws to the disadvantage of
workers. On the other hand, the concomitant political
liberalization created the political space for; breaking the
close and dependent relationship with government, and
provided for the emergence of new, independent trade
unions. In a number of countries, trade unions played a
decisive in the removal of autocratic regimes. Although
their power to influence wages and working conditions
and to defend workers has suffered enormously and
tends to be quite weak nowadays, it would be wrong to
write-off African trade union. After a long period which
saw virtually no new investment in formal activities
taking place in Africa, there are encouraging signs that
foreign investment is picking up again, creating new
opportunities for trade union organisation. Above all, in
many countries unions remain a political force to be
reckoned with, as they continue to be one of the very few
societal organizations in Africa with a sizeable constituency,
country-wide structures and the potential for mobilizing
members on social or political matters.
The development of trade unions in Zambia is dated
back to the early 1940s and first emerged on the Copperbelt
on the mines around 1946. It was also at that time that, the
two-trade unions, the African Nationalist Political Party and
the African Congress emerged to compete for the workers
by claiming it could also represent them better. This

[7]
situation was later to create problems as both began to
compete for the workers, each claiming it could represent
the workers better than the other group could do. The British
Colonial Government was happy to allow the African
workers in Zambia to form Trade Unions to represent
themselves at their places of work so long as the Trade
Unions did not participate in politics.
Trade Unions have been formed since the Industrial
Revolution in Europe and capitalist penetration in other
societies as permanent and democratic organizations of
workers to protect their interests as opposed to those of their
employers at the place of work, through collective
bargaining to partake a better share of the profits and wealth
they generate, through work, community and safety,
pensions and other committees in the union to improve their
working and living conditions and good life after retirement.
An incidental function of Trade unions is to provide its
members a formidable voice in the wider national political
affairs of the Country.
The discovery of Copper and the development of the
Mining Industry in the 1920s and early 1930s marked
Zambia’s extensive and intensive industrialization –which
sparked a twin-legged expansion of agriculture to supply
fresh food to miners and manufacturing to service these
urban areas. Construction and retail trade also boomed.
Rapid industrialization, besides requiring the increase
production and supply of agriculture products and essential
commodities, needed an increased and steady supply of
labor.
At the time of sinking of the Zambian mines in the
1920s some of these villagers had come back with prized
possessions from South Africa where they had earlier been

[8]
recruited through the Native Labor Associations such as
Wenela. But they also came with stories of the brutality and
cruelty of the Boers down South, who through British South
African Company and Anglo American Corporation had
come to run Zambian mines. They were aware also of their
disrespect of Zambian customary rules and village life, the
physical torture by whippings of African workers and the
exploitation of workers through the payment of low
starvation wages, supplementary food rations, substandard
living conditions and toilet facilities.
The Company encouraged the formation of loose Elder
tribal representative bodies, where elders were appointed
from the tribe. In 1934, White Trade Unionism was
suggested by a white painter at Nkana who feared that
without color bar, blacks would take over white jobs. The
companies opposed this idea. This later led to an industrial
action and European miners were shocked to see that the
unorganized African Workers could take industrial action to
advance their demands. With the help of the Mineworkers
Union of South Africa they prepared to form themselves into
a branch of the South African Mineworkers in 1936. This
could not materialize with the preclusion of the South
African Union from operating outside its territory.
Eventually the Northern Rhodesia Mineworkers Union
(NRMWU) was recognized by the mining companies in
1937.
The pressure of war and the consequent shortage of
skilled labor, the mining companies after the white strike
acceded to these demands officially introduced industrial
color bar on the Copperbelt. Africans who had several
grievances of their own, but with no negotiating machinery
through which to present them resorted to strike action to

[9]
advance their cause of African advancement. While at
Nkana mine police opened fire at a crowd of miners
opposing the holding of a pay parade at the compound
office. About 17 workers were killed while 63 were
wounded in just less than 45 minutes of shooting.
Soon after the end of the war in 1946 the British
Government appointed Mr. William M Comrie a trade union
advisor to the Copperbelt. At that time, the Crew Boss
committees were expanded and renamed Works
Committees. The first African trade union was soon
followed by the first branch of the African Mineworkers
Union at Nkana. In 1949, branches all over the Copperbelt
were amalgamated into the Northern Rhodesia African
Mineworkers Trade Union (NRAMTU) and formally
recognized by the mining companies on 9th August 1949.
The formation of NRAMTU achieved many benefits for the
members that the mining companies and the colonial
government in fear started applying ‘divide and rule’ so that
in 1954, the companies instigated the formation of the Mine
African Staff Association (MASA) for clerks and
supervisory workers. The following year in 1955 another
association called Mines African Police Association
(MAPA) was formed by mine police.
The union’s prestige soared and membership
increased. The white miners conducted a second ballot on
limited advancement producing the same result as the 1954
ballot. It was however, discovered that most of the jobs
published by the white union were already surveyed and
union agreement to any present or future advancement.
Some of the investors refused these terms and suggested an
ability bar instead of a color bar, with guarantees for the
protection of white pay and jobs. In the face of record

[10]
copper prices, record bonus earnings, the union decided
against a walkout and signed the agreement with both
groups in September 1955.
There was however, an unforeseen result of the
advancement programme. Many of the jobs which were
transferred to Africans fell into supervisory categories which
removed them from the trade union to the new Mines
African Staff Association. Although it recognized MASA,
the union thought it divisive and weakening to its cause.
With the break-up of the Federation, the mining company
started preparing for the localization of the labor force. This
long and complicated process from the old manning
structure which rested on the principle of white supervisors
and operators supported by gangs of unskilled African Labor
was changed to a new scheme of substantial fragmentation
of jobs and redistribution of responsibilities so that all
artificial barriers to African advancement were removed.
This process meant the evolution of the white
mineworker into the expatriate employee on contract and
began with the establishment in 1964 of the principle that
the companies had the right to displace and compensate any
expatriate as soon as a local employee was trained and ready
to replace him. This formed the basis in 1967 for the
voluntary merger of the union, the staff and mine police
associations into the Mineworkers Union of Zambia. The
last organization representing white workers – the Zambia
Expatriate Mineworkers Association (ZEMA) was dissolved
in 1969.
The pre-colonial history of what was to become
Northern Rhodesia at the end of the 19th century is
fragmentary and based largely on tribal oral tradition. Later
early European explorers, such as Dr. Lacarda who led an

[11]
expedition to Lake Miveru in 1789, and later Dr David
Livingstone who traveled from Bechuanaland through
Barotseland to Luanda in 1853 and returned to Mozambique
in 1855, also gave account of what they had seen and found.
In 1888, Cecil Rhodes, spearheading British commercial and
political interests in Central Africa, obtained mineral rights
concessions from local chiefs. In the same year, Northern
and Southern Rhodesia, now Zambia and Zimbabwe were
proclaimed a British sphere of influence. In the beginning
the territory was administered by Rhodes' British South
Africa Company (BSAC), which showed little interest in the
province and used it mainly as a source of labor. In 1899
the British South Africa Company received a Royal Charter
which empowered it to exercise complete administrative
control over what became known as Southern Rhodesia and
Northern Bechuanaland. From this date onwards the
Company extended its activities across the Zambezi River
into what became known as Northern Rhodesia. The most
important factor in the colony's economy was copper, the
discovery of which is due partly to an American scout,
Frederick Russell Burnham, who in 1895 lead and oversaw
the massive Northern Territories (BSA) Exploration Co.
expedition which established that major copper deposits
existed in Central Africa. Along the Kafue River in then
Northern Rhodesia, Burnham saw many similarities to
copper deposits he had worked in the United States, and he
encountered natives wearing copper bracelets.
In 1923 the British government decided not to renew
the company's charter; as a result, Southern Rhodesia was
annexed formally and granted self-government in 1923.
After negotiations the administration of Northern Rhodesia
was transferred to the British Colonial Office in 1924 as a

[12]
protectorate, with Livingstone as capital. The Company
exercised complete administrative and legislative control
over the territory until 1923 when it surrendered its
buildings, assets and all its land and other monopolistic
rights, other than mineral rights, in return for a cash payment
from the British Government. In 1924 the Office of
Governor of Northern Rhodesia was created and executive
and legislative councils were established in the territory
which became a British Protectorate. There were
progressive constitutional developments in the composition
of these two bodies before and during the period of the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, of which Northern
Rhodesia became a constituent member on 3 September
1953. Following the dissolution of the Federation on 31
December 1963, a new constitution came into effect in
January 1964 giving the territory internal self-government.
On 24 October 1964 Northern Rhodesia became the
independent state of Zambia.
In the absence of a significant manufacturing
sector, African trade unions emerged mainly in the public
service and the public transport sector, mostly for teachers,
railway and port workers. Trade unions were also formed
in the export enclaves of the mining industry for
instance in Zambia, the then Northern Rhodesia, and, to
a lesser extent, in the plantation economy of East
Africa. Only little has changed in this regard over the
past decades, despite all attempts to initiate a process of
state-led industrialization through import substitution in
the first two decades after independence.

[13]
CHAPTER TWO

[14]
 THE LABOR MOVEMENT DURING
KAUNDA’S REGIME (1964-1991)

Since its inception in the 1930s the trade union

movement in Zambia has been instrumental in bringing
about change. Its history stems well before the birth of
African nationalist political parties. The two major industrial
actions (strikes) it organized in 1935 and 1940 on the
Copperbelt commenced a forceful struggle against industrial
exploitation on the one hand and colonialism on the other.
When political parties emerged in the 1940s and 1950s they
grew in tandem with the trade union movement and fought
colonial exploitation together. Despite the many challenges
that they encountered in their fight for emancipation,
colonialism was defeated in October 1964. The labor
movement had decided even before independence to work
with progressive political parties in their struggle for
improved working and living conditions; and above all their
struggle for emancipation from the oppressive colonial
regime.
The UNIP leadership saw the ZCTU as a formidable
enemy politically and so was so unhappy about the labor

[15]
movement supporting calls for a return to multi-party
politics that it tried to weaken the movement by having the
check-off system cancelled, and it also tried to divide it.
UNIP had a special hatred for Frederick Chiluba [ZCTU
chairman] and in an apparently vain attempt to weaken his
power-base, President Kaunda urged the 1990 UNIP
National Council to repeal the 1971 Industrial Relations Act
that compelled trade unions to affiliate to ZCTU.
Kaunda argued that if the government was to be
contested by multiple parties, it followed that an individual
trade union should have the right to secede from ZCTU. In a
divide and rule style, the State had apparently persuaded at
least four unions affiliated to the ZCTU to leave the
organisation.
The top UNIP leadership saw Chiluba as a real
political enemy to fear and it made numerous attempts over
the years to weaken and divide the labor movement by
bringing him and his general secretary Newstead Zimba into
the UNIP Central Committee. When both men refused to
work for UNIP, the party tried to divide them from their
members by trying to show they were pursuing interests
different from those of the workers they led.
It was stated in 1988 that the police Special Branch
infiltrated NUBEGW of which Chiluba was chairman. The
police persuaded the NUBEGW executive to suspend
Chiluba.
The idea was to disqualify him from standing for
election as a ZCTU official, which was open only to those
who held a post in an affiliated union. When ZCTU nullified
Chiluba’s suspension and charged some NUBEGW officials
with conspiracy to remove Chiluba from office

[16]
unconstitutionally and suspended them, NUBEGW officials
took the matter to court.
While the Kitwe High Court ruled in favor of ZCTU,
the Supreme Court overturned the ruling in favor of the
NUBEGW officials. Chiluba’s position was only saved by
ZCTU and ZUFIAW, which gave him senior positions in the
unions. When he was re-elected chairman of ZCTU in
October 1990, he delivered a moving speech in which he
said, among other things, that he was only saved because
God sent angels to redeem him through ZUFIAW.
However, in 1990/1991, the labor movement reached
its peak in popularity and supported the Movement for
Multi-party Democracy (MMD) in the struggle to re-
introduce plural politics in Zambia. However, it is
interesting to note that when the MMD came to power, its
leader Chiluba put in place labor laws that weakened trade
unions. However, as a result of the support it gave to the
MMD, the labor movement could not fight the party.
Chiluba’s position raised interesting questions about
the precise relationship between trade unionists and
politicians in post-independence Zambia and between trade
union leaders and the workers they represented. Kaunda saw
Chiluba as such a formidable opponent that in another
attempt to weaken him, he accused ZCTU of being close to
the CIA and several unnamed Western countries.
Throughout the United National Independence Party
(UNIP) regime, which in 1972 had decided to adopt a one
party system of rule, the labor movement remained a viable
force in the fight against repressive tendencies of the regime.
This fight widened the gap between the ruling party and the
labor movement as labor leaders where considered as threats
by the ruling party. Therefore victimization of labor leaders

[17]
grew and most of them were arrested on trumped up charges
in the 1980s following political upheavals. This however did
not water down trade union determination to bring about
change in the system. A number of industrial actions were
taken following the continuing decline in the standards of
living as the economy collapsed due to alleged
mismanagement and decline in world copper prices.

Trade Unions As Agents Of Political Change

The worsening economic situation and the dictatorial

tendencies of the UNIP government towards the end of the
1980s forced the labor movement to play an instrumental
role in the struggle for the return to multiparty democracy.
The decision to spearhead the campaign for the
reintroduction of multiparty political system was made on
December 30th, 1989 during a National Executive Council
meeting. The decision culminated in the election of the then
ZCTU Chairman General, Mr. Frederick Chiluba, in
October 1991 as the second republican president.
Trade unions as leading associations of civil society
are often instrumental in the process of regime transition.
Due to their central position in the economy, trade unions
can damage the economy through work stoppages. Further,
trade unions have a continuous organizational base and the
workplace is one of the few places in authoritarian political
settings where people can organize without police
interference. In addition to the general democratizing
potential of the trade unions, membership and participation
in trade unions introduce citizens to democratic procedures
which again may induce people to participate in national
economic policies.

[18]
Despite the prima facie importance of trade unions both in
terms of their value orientation and as agents for
democratization, trade unions have been given little
attention in the scholarly debate on development and
democratization. However, while this fact may point to a
weakness of the scholarly debate, it also suggests that civil
society, and trade union movements in particular, in many
third world societies have been too weak to have an impact
on the national political development. The strength of a
trade union movement is often associated with its numerical
base and with the level of industrialization, which again may
explain the limited focus on trade unions in largely peasant-
based third world societies. Nevertheless, studies of trade
union movements in developing nations have indicated that
in countries where workers are organized in industries of
great importance to the economy as a whole, their numerical
strength may be of less significance.
By the end of the eighties and beginning of the
nineties, the rise of an African democracy
movement against dictatorship and mismanagement then
often led to an open rupture. Trade unions declared
their independence from the ruling single-party, and
subsequently played an important role in the transition to
multi-party democracy. Political liberalization led to splits
within the union movement and the emergence of
independent trade unions and competing trade union
federations. This happened especially in Francophone
Africa, but later also in the lusophone countries of
Angola and Mozambique. In Zambia, the trade unions
spearheaded an opposition movement, the “Movement
for Multi-Party Democracy” (MMD), whose leader - the
former secretary-general of ZCTU, Frederick Chiluba,

[19]
succeeded Kenneth Kaunda after having won the
presidential elections of autumn 1991.
However, Chiluba later could not live up to the
expectations that were put in him. South Africa is often
cited as a perfect example for the importance of trade
unions in political transformation processes. In fact,
COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions)
which was founded in 1985 – today, with 1,7 million
members not only the largest of the three
federations in South Africa, but undoubtedly also the
strongest and politically most important in the whole of
Africa, despite the Nigerian’s NLC claim of a higher
membership (3 million) – became a central pillar of the
opposition against the Apartheid regime, especially at
times of the state of emergency from mid-1986 to mid-
1988. In the following transition leading to the 1994
elections, COSATU-unions were represented in various
negotiation forums as part of an African National
Congress (ANC) – led alliance.
A considerable portion of the political leadership
personnel of the post-apartheid era was later recruited
from trade union ranks. The influence of organized labor on
the policies of the new government under Nelson Mandela
was initially high. The “Reconstruction and Development
Programme” (RDP) for example, with which the Mandela-
government in 1994 initiated its struggle against the
socio-economic legacy of apartheid, largely drew from
the COSATU-concept of a “Reconstruction Accord”.
However, from 1996 onwards and after the political rule of
the ANC had been consolidated, this influence faded away
increasingly and even more so under Mandela’s
successor Mbeki. Today, the relationship is

[20]
characterized by persistent strong tensions between the
alliance partners. A growing gap exists in relation to
important cornerstones of the South African
government’s economic policy (fiscal conservatism,
privatization, creation of a black bourgeoisie through
“black economic empowerment”), its HIV/AIDS policy
as well as South Africa’s foreign policy.
The influence of workers organizations in Africa
has remained weak in the traditional fields of labor
relations: improvement of wages and working conditions,
job security, social policies, with the notable exception
of the industrially more developed countries in Africa
(South Africa, Mauritius). Collective agreements play a
subordinate role in fixing wages and working conditions in
most countries. Branch-level or centralized bargaining
rarely exist, again with the exception of South Africa.
There is only limited ‘bargaining autonomy’. Often,
collective agreements need the prior approval of the
competent minister to take effect or, as in the case of
Tanzania, the approval of the Industrial Court, which can
reject them on the grounds of being detrimental to the
economic well-being of the country. The right to strike
generally exists.
However it is often limited through complicated
rules and protracted procedures that make legal strikes in
support of trade union demands virtually impossible in
many countries. Open repression against independent
trade unions in Africa is rather the exception and limited to
countries where the unions are part of a political power
struggle with an authoritarian or dictatorial regime. Yet,
in the wake of the debate around structural
adjustment, deregulation and global competition, African

[21]
unions have found themselves in an increasingly hostile
political environment for quite some time now.
In order to offer more attractive conditions to
foreign investors, many governments have reformed
existing labor laws under the banner of “labor market
flexibility” by dismantling or weakening certain trade
union and worker rights. Another popular ploy is to
by-pass existing labor legislation by introducing special
economic zones in which national labor legislation does
not apply fully, or to simply grant exemptions from the
law on a case-by-case basis. At the same time, high
unemployment, which makes every formal job appear to be
a privilege, is curbing the fighting spirit of workers to
an ex-tent that even massive real wage losses,
deteriorating working conditions and the decline of
worker rights are tolerated without real resistance
over a long period of time.
When labor conflicts occasionally occur, the
affected employers can generally count on the
understanding of the authorities and even their active
support, if so required. Moreover, institutions of social
dialogue between government and social partners on
labor and social policy issues usually do not have
any real weight in such an environment, even if in
cases where they are actually functioning and not just
exist on paper. Hence, more still than elsewhere, trade
unions in Africa today are fighting an uphill battle. Their
already weak economic power position is further eroding
through the continued decline in formal employment and
the respective loss of members. Moreover, their
political possibilities of influencing policy decisions have
also been reduced in a labor-unfriendly policy

[22]
environment, marked by the neo-liberal doctrine of the
Inter-national Financial Institutions. In addition, African
trade unions are often having serious internal problems, e.g.
severe financial problems.
Zambia’s post-independence economic policies have
followed two clearly distinct development paths. The first
covering the period 1964-1991, was President Kenneth
Kaunda’s socialist development strategy, which involved
extensive nationalization of key industries, notably the
mining sector. Although the government inherited a strong
mono-product copper mining economy at independence,
poor management and the inefficiencies of one-party rule
soon led to deterioration of the economy over the next three
decades. Sharp declines in copper prices and the oil shocks
of the period were aggravated by policy inconsistencies and
poor economic management. Copper, the main source of
foreign exchange earnings for the country contributed about
90 per cent to the country’s external earnings. The collapse
of copper prices contributed immensely to the intractable
economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. GDP growth
reversed from 6.7 per cent to a negative of 2.4 per cent in the
same period. In trying to reverse the decline, Kaunda had at
the twilight of his administration embarked on half-hearted
economic reform policies that generally failed to address the
embedded structural weaknesses and poverty levels.
In 1968 Kaunda was re-elected as president, running
unopposed. During the following years Zambia adopted a
one party system. In 1972 all political parties except UNIP
were banned, and this was formalized in a new constitution
that was adopted in 1973. The constitution framed a system
called "one-party participatory democracy", which in
practice meant that UNIP became the sole political factor in

[23]
the country. It provided for a strong president and a
unicameral National Assembly. National policy was
formulated by the Central Committee of UNIP. The cabinet
executed the central committee's policy. In legislative
elections, only candidates running for UNIP were allowed to
participate. Even though inter-party competition was out of
question, the contest for seats within UNIP was energetic. In
the presidential elections, the only candidate allowed to run
was the one elected as president of UNIP at the party's
general conference. In this way Kaunda was re-elected
unopposed with a yes or no vote in 1973, 1978, 1983 and
1988.
This did not, however, mean that there was no
dissension to the imposition of a one-party rule in the
country or within UNIP. Sylvester Mwamba Chisembele
who was Cabinet Minister for Western Province (previously
Barotse Province) together with UNIP leaders from 7 out of
the 8 Provinces established a Committee of 14. The
objective of the Committee of 14 which consisted of two
leaders from each of the 7 provinces was the establishment
of a democratically elected council of two leaders from each
province to rule the country by consensus with the President
as Head of State. If this had been achieved, it would have
meant the curtailing of the absolute power residing in
President Kaunda. The Committee of 14 attended a meeting
in State House at which President Kaunda agreed to consider
their proposals. However, later he banned the Committee of
14 and this action was followed by the suspension of
Sylvester Chisembele and several leaders were sacked.
Chisembele later rejoined the Cabinet as Minister for
Eastern Province and two years later in 1977 he was
transferred in the same position to the Copperbelt Province,

[24]
where the political situation was tense, especially so because
of the forthcoming General Elections. Simon M. Kapwepwe
and Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, who, before the declaration
of a One Party State, had been leaders of the UPP and ANC
political parties respectively, had joined UNIP with the
intention of challenging for the Presidency. However, their
attempt to challenge President Kaunda for the Presidency on
the UNIP ticket failed as both were prevented and
disqualified by the manipulations of President Kaunda, who
stood unopposed. Simon Kapwepwe and Harry Nkumbula
challenged the resultant 1978 election of President Kaunda
in the High Court, but unsurprisingly their action was
unsuccessful.
The years between 1989 and 1991 may be regarded as
the period during which the Zambia Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) reached the height of its perceived influence
in Zambian politics. The organization’s public campaign for
the democratization of Zambian politics, initiated in
December 1989, culminated in the electoral defeat of the
United National Independence Party (UNIP) at the
multiparty polls of October 1991. Prior to that election,
UNIP’s control over the governing institutions of parliament
and the executive organ had been so effectively
unchallenged that the ruling party equated itself with the
state as well as with Zambian civil society. But all this
changed when active trade union support for the Movement
for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), the political opposition
which Frederick Chiluba led to electoral victory in October
1991, decisively brought to an end the authoritarian party-
state regime.

Nationalization And The Workers

[25]
 The impact of the Zambianisation policy can be traced
in retrospect of the state of Zambia’s economy prior to the
promulgation of the nationalization policy. The colonial
period provided Northern Rhodesia with a highly developed
copper-mining enclave, owned by two multinationals, the
South African Anglo-American Corporation and the
American Metal Climax. Ownership in manufacturing
industry was divided between multinationals and white
settlers, while commercial farming was predominantly in the
hands of settlers. The indigenes were at the periphery of the
economy and mostly provided labor to the settler’s
enterprises.
In addition to of controlling the commanding heights
of the economy, the settlers occupied most strategic
positions in the civil service and the private sector. When
Zambia got its independence from Britain in 1964 , the
country inherited an economy totally dependent on copper
which, during the boom period, provided more than ninety
per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings, more
than fifty percent of government revenue, thirty percent of
gross domestic product (GDP) and fifteen percent of
employment. Dissatisfied with this colonial legacy and
inspired by a socialist political philosophy, between 1968
and 1970 the government took over majority control in the
largest mining, industrial, transport, and commercial
enterprises.
In line with this policy of Zambianization, the formerly
exclusively foreign upper and middle strata of the state and
economy were successively replaced by Zambians at salaries
commensurate with their non-Zambian colleagues.) 5 Soon
after obtaining political power, the nationalist leadership of
the United National Independence Party (UNIP) declared its

[26]
intention to acquire state control of the foreign-owned
business sector. By 1978 the state controlled 80% of the
economy and employed 75% of all wage employees in the
parastatals, which had been set up to run the state enterprises
(e.g., ZIMCO), employed 140,000 persons or 30% of the
workforce.6This was all done as a response many demands
for resources from its supporters.
In the early stages of nationalization, Kaunda’s
government introduced subsidies to most essential services.
Parastatals heavily subsidized their services in the favor of
Zambia’s poor. For example, the United Bus Company of
Zambia (UBZ) offered cheap transport throughout the
country even to the remotest parts, where private firms were
not willing to operate. Other companies like the Nitrogen
Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) produced fertilizer and sold it
at concessionary rates to farmers, while the Zambia
Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) took over from the
private firms and began an electrification programme that
extended to all parts of the country.8 Parastatals were
engaged in crucial initiatives that the private sector was not
willing to pursue or which they deemed “unprofitable”.
As time proceeded, Zambia which had created a
comprehensive welfare system could no longer guarantee
services to its citizens. Companies that had offered heavily
subsidized social services were operating below par and
merely became drains on the economy. Again, it is
noteworthy that throughout the economic crisis, ZCCM was
treated as a “cash cow”, milked without corresponding
investment in machinery and prospecting ventures, and the
mines suffered from little investment, as had been the case
before 1969With no prospects for exploration and drilling,
and a lack of spares in equipment and machinery, no new

[27]
mines were opened after 1979. ZCCM production collapsed
from a high of 750,000 tons in 1973 to 257, 000 tons in
2000.9
The introduction of subsidies was therefore a populist
strategy which was amenable to the masses but did not make
any economic since for it was not sustainable.
Zambianisation brought an increase to the number indigenes
that got employment in both the civil service and the private
sector. Prior to the introduction of Zambianisation, few
Zambians had jobs in government. From 1963 to 1968 the
number of Zambians in central government employment
rose from 1,357 to 7,509 through Zambianisation of existing
positions and the expansion of the civil service.
Between December 1975 and December 1977, a period
of acute crisis for the economy, total employment of
Zambians in the private sector fell from 120,320 to
98,730.11 In contrast; it increased from 124,760 to 126,260
in the government sector and from 116,150 to 128,350 in the
parastatals. 12And average earnings were 60 per cent higher
in the parastatals sector than in the private sector in 1977.
The civil service increased by 265 per cent from 1963 to
1974 and its emoluments by 328 per cent in the same
period.13 Under the terms of Zambianisation, President
Kaunda was personally empowered to appoint and,
occasionally, to suspend - the chief executive officers, even
though the Articles of Association vest this power in the
boards themselves. This control by informal means was
facilitated by the Zambianisation of top posts. However,
though there was this increase of Zambians taking the top
post, most of them were not skilled and this had an effect on
the production capacity of the nationalized entities.

[28]
 Furthermore, Zambianisation created a bloated civil
service, resulting in a tremendous increase in government
expenditure. Due to the one of Zambianisation’s fault line,
the Zambian government was forced to revise its policy on
Zambianisation of labor and implemented a mixture of the
indigenes and expatriates. However this arrangement was
another source of resentment for the locals for the
expatriates were offered better remuneration than the
locals .Libby and Woakes posit that even by 1977 (eight
years after nationalization), only two of the eleven general
managers and other top managers in NCCM were Zambian.
In addition, these positions were entirely in administration,
while the technical mining functions were still managed by
non-Zambians. At the formation of ZCCM in 1982, none of
the general managers was Zambian.
Between December 1975 and December 1977, a
period of acute crisis for the economy, total employment of
Zambians in the private sector fell from 120,320 to
98,730.18 In contrast; it increased from 124,760 to 126,260
in the government sector and from 116,150 to 128,350 in the
parastatals. And average earnings were 60 per cent higher in
the parastatals sector than in the private sector in 1977.
However, though there was this increase, most of the
Zambians who got employed were not skilled and this had
an effect on the production capacity of the nationalized
entities. Furthermore, Zambianisation created a bloated civil
service, resulting in a tremendous increase of government
expenditure since the bulk of it was channeled to cater for
the bloated civil service.
Mining workers conditions deteriorated and strikes became
the order of the day in Zambia. The strikes were mainly
caused by UNIP’s bid to control the workers unions. In

[29]
order to ensure mine worker discipline, UNIP and the
government tried to take over the African Mine Worke;2rs
Union and to control the workers through the UNIP-
dominated Zambian Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
Kaunda tried to soften the impact of these actions by
claiming, in populist vein, that government and worker
interests were identical. As he put it idealistically in 1965,
“being the head of a worker’s government makes it
impossible for me or my colleagues to be against the
legitimate interests of the workers.” Instead of cooperating
with UNIP in its corporatist scheme, however, the miners
rejected UNIP's bid to take over the union leadership,
despite frequent attacks from the state. This became even
more crucial after Kaunda announced the partial
nationalization of the mining companies at Mulungushi in
April 1968.
Armed with the Turner Report, the state blamed
decreasing productivity on the mine workers and froze
wages. Miners were accused of absenteeism, failing to obey
instructions, sleeping at work and drunkenness, all old
colonial allegations. Future pay raises were to be tied to
increased productivity, an old management axiom. Strikes
were declared an act “against the people,” and workers were
told at all costs they must “not endanger the smooth and
efficient workings of industry. Regardless of this state grip
on labor activities strikes characterized Zambia’s mining
industry. That same year the wives of the miners took their
empty pots, pans and plates before government offices on
the Copper belt and demanded that they be filled with food.
In 1980 there were over 120 strikes or go-slows and in July
of 1981 a massive strike broke out on the Copper belt. The
skilled workers demanded the same pay as Europeans doing

[30]
similar work, and all the miners struck in sympathy. The
president of one of Zambia’s Union insisted that “these
strikes are symptoms of the people’s growing
disenchantment with this government’s economic policies.”
Zambia was proclaimed a presidential one-party state
in December 1972, but it was not until August in 1973 that
the National Assembly adopted a new constitution. In March
1972, opening the UNIP national council in Mulungushi
Hall, Kenneth Kaunda told the delegates that:
The one-party will help us to weed out people who
have become professionals at telling lies, spreading
rumours…and pretending to oppose what they inwardly
welcome and exploit for their own personal benefits in the
name of democracy… This era in which the politics of
patronage has been a feature of life is gone.
In reality the one-party state was intended to protect
the ruling elites from challenge, from political opponents,
consequently prolong their stay in power. Under the one-
party system confrontations characterized relations between
UNIP and trade unions. As president of MUZ Timothy
Walamba became the loud voice of the mine workers, the
duty he performed with remarkable ability. He was
recognized as the champion of the underprivileged masses
and gradually gained respect, popularity and admiration
from his peers, to an extent that there were calls for him to
contest the presidency of Zambia Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU), the mother body of all unions, calls which
conveniently did not heed for fear that they might jeopardize
his brotherly friendship with Dr FTJ Chiluba who was then
President of ZCTU.
In the one party system, Kaunda like many leaders in
the Sub-Saharan Africa had become greedy in office and

[31]
completely blind to the poverty situation. He was a kindly
and idealistic man, though a savage and an opportunistic
man.
It was a treasonable offence to form a political party,
let alone oppose the governance of Kaunda. It is true to say
that 1972 will always be engraved in Zambia’s political
calendar as the year in which the democratic hopes and
aspirations of the Zambian people were dashed. The
people’s voice now was to be heard in the voices of their
labour leaders.
After the introduction of the one-party system, UNIP
envisaged the ZCTU and the labour movement generally to
be non-independent sectional groups which were obliged at
all times to support the party’s policies and programs. In
1975 after the ZCTU had attacked price increases and
subsidies, Kaunda was upset. He reminded the ZCTU
leaders that:
The ZCTU as a people’s organization is also
responsible to the party and comes under the discipline of
the party. It is the duty of the ZCTU to pursue the party’s
programs and implement the party policies because the party
is supreme over the ZCTU and other national institutions.
The Kaunda regime suppressed freedom of expression and
association, in order to maintain a grip on power. Critics of
the Kaunda government, suffered great persecution, there
was an atmosphere of fear and oppression which became
characteristic of the second republic, with endless detentions
without trial, particularly after the government uncovered a
potential coup attempt in 1980, and became more suspicious
and intolerant.
As FTJ Chiluba (1995) rightly puts it,

[32]
 “From 1980 onwards the oppression and repression
increased and became more systematic, so did the growing
discontent with the way the country was been run. The
events surrounding the introduction of the local
administration Bill in 1980 provide a good illustration. This
constituted another land mark in the evolution of the second
republic… The proposals entailed confining the local
franchise for electing district councillors initially to UNIP
party officials which was subsequently extended to members
only, who comprised a very tiny fraction of the local
population in some localities, and the introduction of an
Electoral College system which narrowed the scope further
to only party officials… The passage of the bill met with
organized opposition from the Zambia Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU), and the Mine Workers Union (MUZ) in
particular played a prominent role in advancing a reasoned
case against the proposals.”
The UNIP national council accused labour leaders of
behaving like an opposition party. In January 1981, the
Central Committee of UNIP expelled 17 leaders of the
ZCTU and MUZ; Timothy Walamba was one of those who
were expelled from the UNIP party for anti-party activities.
Until when over 50,000 miners went on strike to protest
against the expulsion of their leaders, they were reinstated in
April 1981. The most prominent among them were placed in
detention under the preservation of public security
regulations. They were released only after application for
writs of habeas corpus and a high court ruled in their favour.
On 28th July 1981, Timothy Walamba, FTJ Chiluba,
Newstead Zimba, Chitalu Sampa were detained by Dr
Kenneth Kaunda for allegedly inciting workers to go on
strike, disrupting industrial peace and threatening to

[33]
overthrow government. Timothy Walamba spent a night at
Chililabombwe police station the day he was arrested on
28th July 1981, then Chingola police another night,
Kansenshi Prison in Ndola one night, then maximum prison
in Kabwe on 31 July 1981 where he shared a room with Mr.
Pretorius who was charged with Mr. Shamwana and the
group for attempting to overthrow the government. The
following day he was kept at Chimbokaila Prison, then
finally Katete Prison where he spent four months in
detention. This was an ordeal that was to later to separate the
boys from the men. As Dr FTJ Chiluba asserts, “I have
learnt one philosophy; tough times pass, tough men
remain.” It was these political persecutions and the strong
ideological beliefs for democracy that later culminated in the
Movement for Multi-party Democracy.
A Zambia Daily Mail paper dated 23rd September
1981 reported,
“On 26 August, last year at Man Power services offices
of Konkola division of NCCM, Mr. Walamba who is
detained on four grounds, told miners whose names are
unknown at Vega Cinema in Chililabombwe that he had
persuaded branch executives and shop stewards at various
mines to call upon miners to go on illegal strikes. While
addressing 500 illegal strikers from Chibuluma Mine in
Kalulushi at Union square on 25th January this year he
allegedly told them that he was very happy that miners had
responded favourably to his call on them to go on strike….”
Since the fight for Independence, labour movements
have been at the centre of political agitation. Although the
Kaunda regime claimed that the detention of the four labour
leaders was in the preservation of public security, it was
merely done stifle freedom expression. The people’s

[34]
discontent with the monstrous one-party state was expressed
through the labour leaders. It was treasonable to oppose the
Kaunda regime, as there were no political parties to
represent the people’s franchise.
The four detained labour leaders felt that the onus to
fight for Multi-partyism and democracy was on them.
Hence, at a May Day rally Chitalu Sampa said that the UNIP
government would have been toppled had President Kaunda
not made changes in the army. During the Labour Day rally
held in Mpika on 1st May 1980, Mr. Sampa said that the
ultimate aim of the ZCTU was to take over the country’s
leadership. He also said that government was unjustified in
increasing the prices of Mealie-meal, thereby inciting
workers to rise against the government, especially miners on
the copper belt.
FTJ Chiluba (1995) affirmed that,
“The sustained opposition of all trade unions under the
ZCTU was a mile stone in the development of organized
resistance to the undemocratic tendencies of the one-party
state. Between 1981 and 1983 the unions point continued to
be made by staging over 230 illegal strikes… In a speech
lasting over five hours Dr. Kaunda singled the ZCTU and
MUZ spokesmen accusing them of being a cover for
American Intelligence (CIA) and warning that labour
leaders who do not dissociate themselves from attacks on
the party would dance to the party music.”
Another union leader warned that “the mood of the
worker is grim, their living standards are falling fast and we
may not be able to hold them back much longer.” This mood
had not changed by early secretary-general of ZCTU,
blamed the government and UNIP, claiming that the workers
“had been taken for a ride as all their meager earnings were

[35]
swallowed up in high prices of basic essential commodities.”
These challenges confronting the workers can be attributed
partly to the nationalization of the copper industry and
Kaunda’s attempt to suppress the rights of workers.
Zambianisation contributed to a decline in the overall
output of copper production. Annual output dropped from its
1976 high of 713 000 metric tons to a low 479 000 metric
tons in 1985. This was mainly caused by the nationalization
of the foreign owned entities in the copper industry.
However, this decline experienced in the copper industry
cannot be entirely blamed on nationalization of the copper
industry because there were other forces at play.
Chiefly, amongst these forces was the fall in copper prices
from mid- 1970s which; 2reduced the real value of the
country’s commodity exports by over forty percent. Also
some external factors which were at play. These external
factors arose from Zambia’s vulnerable geopolitical position
and its decision to support liberation movements fighting for
national independence despite the constraints imposed by
economics and geography, and reprisals by its powerful
neighbors. During the period of copper slump, the
government resorted to external borrowings in order to
manage both capital and recurrent accounts, continue mining
production, facilitate foreign company’s profit
externalization and meet debt obligations.
Thus by 1980 the country’s debt service ratio had risen
to 18,6 percent, from only 5,5 percent a decade before, by
1990 total arrears had accumulated to over $7 billion32.
Zambia had become per capita, one of the world’s most
indebted nations. The nationalization of the retail trade was
followed by a shortage of basic goods in the shops. Rural
people were progressively deprived of access to goods. In

[36]
urban centers there were shortages, for example, of soap,
washing, powder, salt, paraffin, sugar, cooking oil, candles,
and blankets. Unlike their rural counterparts, urban people
had to queue or buy on the black market; most rural people
did not have a queue they can join. They either had to travel
long distances in the hope of getting what they want, or do
without. The clearest evidence of this trend is the closing of
many rural shops and the emptiness of those that remain. By
1980 it was apparent that the depression was much more
serious and deep-seated. So far as retail trade was
concerned.
In addition to food shortages, there was a decline of village
shops and informal traders in remote rural areas. The supply
of essential commodities like bread or flour, cooking oil,
mealie meal, salt, washing powder, bathing soap, soft drinks,
paraffin, candles, sugar, and blankets was absent from the
shelves of district center shops for considerable periods over
the last 12 months. It could be argued that the real cause of
this decline was the depression and not the Economic
Reforms brought by nationalization.
It however remains a fact that the price controls
effected by nationalization and the denial of licenses to
resident expatriates was the primary cause of shortages of
essential commodities and black-markets. Most of these
parastatals however faced a number of problems for they
were not financially capacitated to effectively and efficiently
run the parastatals, leading to low production output.
On the manufacturing sector, the Zambianisation
reforms impacted on the structure of the productive sector.
First, only a few sectors of the economy for the private
sector to thrive were left to thrive. Hence, when privatization
took off the Zambian-owned private sector was

[37]
characterized by lack of capital and lack of management
experience. Likewise, it left the success of the private sector
in the hands of the political incentives emerging from the
state.
Thus, it came as no surprise that Zambian-owned
businesses failed to benefit from the large-scale divestment
programme. Despite numerous reforms by the government
of Zambia to ease the day-to-day activities of private
businesses, scholarship argues that these businesses’
historical entanglement with the political elite has given rise
to a tendency among Zambian businessmen to seek
opportunities through personal ties with those close to
political power.
Faced with the drastic effects of Zambianisation to
Zambia’s economy, Kenneth Kaunda’s government had to
adopt austerity measures prescribed by the Bretton woods
institutions. It was in this atmosphere that the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund entered into Zambia’s
economic decision-making processes, in the 1980s, through
austerity programs.
The Zambian government compelled to liberalize the
economy and also cut down on social spending. The
understanding behind these measures was that the State-
controlled economy had overheated through interventionist
policies. The adoption of the austerity measures as
prescribed by the IMF is therefore a precise indication of the
failure of the Zambianisation programme. In fact SAPS were
meant to reverse the damage which Zambianisation had
inflicted on post-colonial Zambian economy.
Zambianisation was a politically sound policy which
was meant to consolidate the newly elected UNIP
government power. However the policy led the newly

[38]
independent country into an economic mess. It is this
economic mess that forced Zambia to adopt Economic
Structural Adjustment prescriptions and dump the
nationalization agenda. In the succeeding years ESAP again
was later dumped for its failure address the deteriorating
economic conditions. Furthermore a plethora of external
factors like the decline of international copper prices and
Zambia’s support of Southern Africa’s liberation movement
aided to the economic decline of its economy.

[39]
 CHAPTER THREE

THE TRADE UNION DURING THE

CHILUBA REGIME (1991-2001)

This period was characterized by transformation of the

Zambian economy from one where the state played the
leading role not just in policy formulation but also in the
ownership and management of industrial enterprises, to one
with a highly liberalized economy. The economic
transformation began in earnest in 1992 with the support of
the IMF and soon after the election of the new Government
led by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).
The main thrust of the transformation and reform was
the liberalization of the economy which involved the
removal of deep rooted distortions created by earlier
policies. The package of reforms included removal of the
protection of the domestic market, as well as abolition of
subsidies and all forms of controls – prices, exchange rates,

[40]
interest rates, together with formidable monetary policy. It
also included, more importantly, extensive privatization of
state owned enterprises and elaborate reform of the civil
service. Some of the key elements and objectives of the
reforms included establishment of positive market
determined interest rates, liberalization of foreign exchange
market, elimination of chronic budget deficit, reduction of
inflation, broadening tax base, improvement of revenue
collection, liberalization of agricultural marketing,
reductions of state control of the economy and allow the
private sector to run businesses, attraction of direct foreign
investment, liberalization of the labor market through
appropriate reform of labor laws, and reduction of the civil
service to improve remuneration and efficiency. A number
of policy actions were thus taken and implemented in this
regard. At the commencement of the privatization exercise,
there was a working portfolio of 282 parastatals enterprises.
Since then 258 enterprises have been fully disposed of and
only 24 are under preparation as at 31st October 2003.
Whilst the privatization had a vision that the proceeds from
the exercise would be employed, among others, to support
social and alternative income generating projects,
redundancy schemes, and establish credit finance for
emerging Zambian entrepreneurs, it would appear that very
little support has been directed to this end.
To the worsening economic conditions was a call for a
wages policy that included a minimum wage, tied to a
poverty datum line. The economy also witnessed a steady
decline in employment. Formal employment, which
represented 75 per cent of the labor force in 1975, declined
to 10.3 per cent in 1999.

[41]
 As regards the effect on employment, what needs to be
noted is the lack of consistent and comparative data in
Zambia, even when obtained from the statistical authorities.
This weakness makes any analysis somewhat patchy,
although one can gain an indication of the trends and impact
of economic reforms on employment.
Zambia’s labor force, or the economically active
population of ages 15-65 years, was estimated at 4.9 million,
or 42.8 per cent of the population, according to the 2005
labor force survey. It was estimated that formal (wage)
employment accounted for 495,784 workers, or about 10.1
per cent of the labor force in that year. Between 1985 and
1997, total formal employment fell sharply from 521,900 to
472,300, or by 10 per cent. Aggregate and sectorial
employment declined throughout the second half of the
1990s, and has also declined in the present decade. Public
service reforms of the period also contributed to job losses.
Thus, between 1997 and 2000, employment in the
service declined from 139,000 to 101,000, or by 3 per cent.
Generally, the decline in employment was more severe in
key sectors such as mining, manufacturing and construction,
where employment fell by proportions of between 33 per
cent and 62 per cent. Although employment grew in trade,
finance and services, by between 16 per cent and 58 per cent
during the period, most job increases was in the contingent
employment category, known in Zambia as casualization.
Correspondingly the economy became profoundly
informalized, with 3.6 million people engaged in informal
employment in 1999, and representing 79 per cent of the
labor force. The 2005 labor force survey put the number of
people in the informal economy at about 3 million, or 88 per
cent of total employed in that year, underlining the

[42]
informalisation of the economy. One significant effort to
address the employment challenge was the formulation in
2005 of a National Employment and Labor Market Policy.
The policy identifies labor as a key factor in economic
growth, and aims at creating “adequate and quality jobs
under conditions that ensure adequate income, protection of
workers’ and basic human rights”. However, it remains to be
seen how this grand initiative will contribute to increasing
labor demand in the economy. Meanwhile, trade unions
have called for prompt implementation as an element of the
macroeconomic policy.
According to data from the Central Statistical Office:
the labor force in the 1990s grew at an average of 3.8%
annually. On the other hand, formal sector employment
contracted from 544,200 in 1991 to 475,100 in 1997 and to
476,347 in 2000. In the face of labor force growth,
depressed economy and contracting formal employment, the
employment situation was bleak. With regard to gender,
women continued to lag behind in terms of both numbers
employed and were largely occupied in the low ranks and
stereotyped jobs such as teaching in pre and primary
schools, secretarial, nursing and clerical. An important
development during the decade in relation to gender was the
adoption by the Government of the National Gender Policy
to promote equality between men and women at all levels of
development.
Given the decline in formal employment, the informal
economy naturally assumed the main source of employment.
Apart from young people leaving school and entering the
labor market for the first time, redundant workers were also
forced into the informal economy for sustenance and or
simply to survive. The informal sector offers low quality

[43]
jobs which are largely uncovered by employment protection
legislation. Where they are covered, the legislation is timidly
enforced. Income levels in this sector are low leading to low
standard of living and high poverty levels.
The major effect of the liberalization programme in
Zambia in terms of labor market was the large scale
retrenchments and layoffs of workers arising largely from
restructuring of Companies and work force rationalization
measures aimed at improving the efficiency of Companies
following privatization. The loss of employment also arose
from the closure of inefficient enterprises that were not able
to withstand foreign competition.
The Mining sector gives a good illustration of the drop
in employment levels arising from the privatization
programme and ensuing restructuring. In 1991 the Mining
sector accounted for over 64,000 employees. Following the
privatization of the Mining Companies, in 2000, the Mining
and quarrying sector accounted for only 35,000 employees.
The public sector was not spared from the loss of
employment as a direct result of the public service reform
programme. Between 1997 and 1998 an estimated 15,000
workers were declared redundant or induced into premature
voluntary retirement.
In terms of trade union membership, the employment
losses arising from the new economic policy dispensation
obviously meant reduced trade union membership. To
counteract this, the Unions made inroads in organizing
people in the informal sector.

The State And The Trade Union

The major political development that occurred in

[44]
the introduction of plural politics. The one party state was
abolished with the amendment of the country’s Constitution
allowing for the establishment of other political parties other
than the United National Independence Party [UNIP]. The
trade unions were particularly instrumental in bringing about
this political change and some of its officers held top
positions in the new Government including that of State
President.
The opening up of the political scene triggered
agitation for similar let up in the industrial relations arena
where hitherto monopoly trade unionism was the order.
Hence in line with international standards on freedom of
association, the law and practice were ultimately altered to
also allow a plural dispensation.
In the one party era, the trade unions through their
only central organization, the Zambia Congress of Trade
Unions had close affinity with the Party, [UNIP] and
participated in the various activities of the Party such as the
General Conference and National Council where Party and
Government policies were mooted.
This arrangement, whilst beneficial to the trade
unions in that it afforded them the opportunity to participate
in making decisions that affected their members or offered
them a platform to be heard, also had the effect of
compromising the Unions’ independence.
Following the onset of multipartism, the trade unions
resolved to adopt a neutral position in relation to political
parties but vowed to work with the Government of the day.
Since then, the trade unions have maintained a reasonable
distance from political parties without impairing the right of
their individual members to join or support a political party
of their choice.

[45]
[46]
 CHAPTER FOUR

GOVERNMENT POLICY AND THE

UNIONS

[47]
 The genesis of the industrial relations framework in
Zambia may be found in many International Labor
Conventions. Of particular importance are Conventions No
87 and 98 dealing with freedom of association and the right
to organize and collective bargaining.
Although these important instruments were ratified by
Zambia only in 1996, their provisions were largely
incorporated in the industrial relations legislation much
earlier. The initial thrust of the legislation was basically to
provide protection to the vulnerable group in the
employment relationship in order to create a level
playground for interaction.
The legislation was tailored to allow for Government
intervention in the labor market to assure reasonable terms
and conditions of employment and the safety health and
general welfare of workers in the era when trade unions
were none existent or were ineffective and therefore
incapable of providing counter-veiling force in the interests
of workers.
With passage of time and development of trade unions
and employers organizations, it has become possible to
progressively diminish the state regulatory mechanisms in
favor of collective bargaining. Today there are only small
pockets where collective bargaining is not felt.
The responsibility for the administration of the trade
union law reposes in the Labor Commissioner who is also
Registrar of trade unions. His responsibilities include
examination and scrutiny of Union rules prior to registration
or any amendments made thereto. The rules are determined
by the Union concerned but must contain certain basic
provisions which include the objectives of the union and the
classes of employees to be covered, the organizational

[48]
structure, rate and collection of subscription which may
include stop order arrangements, judicious application of
funds, benefits accruing to members, appointment and
removal of officers, inspection and audit of books of
accounts, conduct of strike ballots and dissolution of the
union.
Where a Union is registered, its management is
governed strictly by its rules and there is little intercession
from the Commissioner. Apart from giving counsel to
ensure due observance of the rules, the Commissioner is
empowered to receive audit reports and information on
financial affairs at regular intervals.
This arrangement is intended to ensure that Union
funds are handled properly and in the interests of the general
membership. De-registration of a Union is rare and may
occur only on the request of the Union, or if the registration
was obtained by fraud or mistake, or the Union has willfully
violated the law, or the Union is literally dead. In any case
before de- registration is effected, the Union must be given
an opportunity to make representations and there is a right of
appeal to the Industrial Relations Court.
For much of the post-independence period, Kaunda
made unsuccessful overtures to subordinate or co-opt the
labor movement to his government. Favorable policy
initiatives, such as making the ZCTU the sole labor center in
the country, as well as the “one union per industry” policy of
1971, were clearly attractive overtures in this regard, and
helped in creating a strong labor movement. Labor’s
resistance to compromise its independence led to the
government’s unremitting persecution of; its leader.
Kaunda’s socialist economic policy failed and severely
weakened his government. Correspondingly, opposition

[49]
groups, particularly labor, were strengthened in their call for
multiparty democracy.
When agitations for political liberalization finally
succeeded in 1990, Kaunda rescinded the earlier labor policy
by “liberalizing” the labor movement, such as introducing
legislation that reversed the one union per industry policy.
However, Kaunda’s action had little effect on labor
cohesion, which had attained a high level during the earlier
two decades.
The ZCTU under the leadership of Fredrick Chiluba,
roundly condemned the anti-union policy as a design to
divide labor, and continued to mobilize a coalition of
opposition groups to found the Movement for Multiparty
Democracy, MMD. This disparate alliance of opposition
groups ultimately ousted Kaunda, with the election of
Chiluba as President of Zambia.
But on becoming President, Chiluba reneged on his
promise to strengthen the labor movement. Worse still, he
adopted the controversial SAP measures and promptly
distanced himself from the trade unions. A regime of anti-
labor policies followed, and ultimately led to ZCTU split.
For a long time until the 1990s, the labor movement in
Zambia was a united body and one of the most effective and
influential labor movements in Southern Africa. The Zambia
Congress of Trade Unions was established by law in 1964 as
the labor center in the country. At its peak in 1991, the
congress had a total membership of approximately 480,000
in its 17 affiliated unions. However, the economic
restructuring of the decade reduced its membership by over
60 per cent, to its current membership of 281,554 in 29
affiliated unions (ZCTU, 2006). Until 1996, the ZCTU was
the only labor center in the country. Under the principle of

[50]
one union per industry, all the industrial unions were
compulsorily affiliated to the Congress.
However, not only has the implementation of market-
oriented policies removed ZCTU hegemony, they had
contributed to internal discordance within labor. For
example, at its conference in 1994, five of the biggest
unions, including the two most resource-based, the
Mineworkers Union of Zambia and the National Union of
Teachers disaffiliated. Ultimately, this division led to the
formation of the Federation of Free Trade Unions of
Zambia, FFTUZ, which was subsequently registered by the
government. The federation claimed 11 sectorial affiliates,
and to total membership estimated at 50,000 in 2006, drawn
mainly from the public service, local government, mining
and agriculture. Overall the two centers claimed just over
331,000 in membership in 2006, or 67 per cent of the total
formal sector employment. But when seen in terms of total
(formal and informal) employment, union representation
was a mere 8 per cent in that year.
It is important to note that the associated structural
transformation in the labor force has eroded the traditional
membership base of trade unions. Casual or contingent
workers are neither obliged to join the union, nor are
employers willing to countenance their membership in
unions. Casual workers are themselves conscious of the
insecurity of employment, and are hardly enthused about
joining the union.
The division in the labor movement has lingered,
despite the strong need for a united voice. Inter-union
rivalries, sometimes nurtured by government policy had
denied labor the critical need for a united voice on labor
market and economic policy issues in the country.

[51]
Additionally, employers’ hostility to unionization has had a
chilling effect on unions’ capacity to organize, while they
have done little to educate workers on the usefulness of
trade unions; they have not set aside any budget for training,
but have depended mainly on donor resources.
Apart from constitutional guarantees of freedom of
association for all citizens, the legal framework of
employment relations in Zambia is the Industrial Relations
Act, first introduced in 1964, with fundamental revisions in
1971, and further significant revisions in 1990, 1993 and
1997. The 1993 Industrial Relations Act is particularly
significant, because it was designed to support the
implementation of economic liberalization. Several other
legislative regimes that regulate other aspects of
employment relations exist in the country (GRZ, 1998). One
notable law is the Employment Act, which is at the center of
the casualization and contingent employment in the country.
Through the legal framework and its implementation, the
state wields enormous influence in the employment
relationship.
To institutionalize centralized bargaining, the law
created the Joint Industrial Council system, JIC, as the
machinery for employers and workers’ negotiation on wages
and other employment conditions. This structure allows
collective bargaining between on the one hand, an industry-
based union and, on the other, a group of employers in the
particular economic sector. A particularly supportive
provision allows all workers, irrespective of their union
membership status, or workers in an enterprise which is not
a signatory to the agreement, to be covered by the industry
agreement. This provision provided the critical incentive for

[52]
workers to join the union, or for employers to join the
sectorial association.
However, public policy which seeks to “liberalize” the
labor market has had the opposite effect on employment
relations. For example, while the 1997 amendment to the
Industrial and Labor Relations Act aligned the law with the
international labor standards, it also removed the mandatory
nature of the JICs and allows employers the freedom as to
whether they wanted to conduct collective bargaining at the
industry-level, or individually at the enterprise level. This
decentralized policy, ostensibly made to boost the
privatization policy, has the effect of weakening the capacity
of trade unions to effectively conduct collective bargaining,
particularly with reluctant employers (Banda, 1997).
A major concern about the role of the state in
employment relations is the readiness or ability of the
ministry of labor to enforce the legal framework. Certainly
the ministry does not have the enforcement capacity, due
mainly to severe personnel shortages. For example, of the 72
administrative districts in the country, only 21 of them are
effectively manned by labor officers, for inspection and
monitoring the employment relations in enterprises. In
effect, those employers outside the districts where the labor
ministry had its inspectorate staff have the freedom to
conduct their employee relations without hindrance or the
surveillance of the labor ministry.
Public labor policy on collective bargaining in Zambia
is arguable one of the most progressive policy regimes in
Southern Africa. As far back as 1961, workers’
organizations were granted the right to organize for
collective bargaining purposes in both the private and public
sectors. Any group of 25 workers or more have the right to

[53]
enter into a recognition agreement and bargain collectively
on behalf of the workers. The introduction of centralized
bargaining at industry level was particularly helpful to the
nascent trade union organizations, which had limited
capacity, resources and experienced leaders who could
match the relatively more experienced and better resourced
employers at the enterprise level.
Mainly on account of this favorable policy, collective
bargaining gained firm root in key economic sectors, notably
transport, mining, manufacturing, financial services, security
and agriculture, as well as the public sector. The evidence
suggests that nearly 80 per cent of workers were covered by
collective bargaining in the 1970s and 1980s.
However, since the introduction of liberalization,
collective bargaining has faced difficulties in the private
sector and to some extent in the public service. While hard
evidence is difficult to come by, imprecise information from
the social partners, and supported by records of the labor
ministry suggests that collective bargaining is today limited
to the mines, financial institutions, agriculture, and the
public service. In the expanding service and manufacturing
sectors, and generally in the small and medium enterprises,
collective bargaining is virtually non-existence. The
significance of the JIC, or industry-wide bargaining had
changed dramatically, as a result of its de-emphasis in public
policy, which allows individual employers to negotiate at the
enterprise level. In addition, new investors in the country
have shown little interest in a concerted approach to
employment relations issues, preferring instead individual
contracts, and also extensively using contingent employment
types. The inspiration for these practices has ostensibly been
drawn from the flexibility of public policy.

[54]
 Today, apart from government, as employers of labor,
only a few JICs exist in the private sector, notably in mining
and agriculture. In fact, as the unions argue, some employers
who claimed to operate the JIC are in actual fact offering
individual contracts to their workers. In agriculture, for
example, a common practice among employers has been the
adoption of the nationally determined minimum wage as the
going wage rate in their employ. The fact that the inspection
capacity of the labor ministry is limited and inefficient
removes the possibility of monitoring such employers. Not
only does this practice weakens industry-level bargaining, it
renders the negotiation process worthless and exasperating
to unions.
In the public sector, collective bargaining remains the
main machinery for wage determination, and today covers
over 90 per cent of eligible workers. However, while the
machinery remains central to wage determination in the
sector, there are notable recent changes that appear to
weaken its effect, with adverse implications for the private
sector. For example, government has practiced an unofficial
policy of wage moderation, ostensibly as an incentive for
FDI. In 2001, for example, the Chiluba administration
imposed a controversial wage freeze on government
workers, seemingly to pre-empt the private sector from
negotiations that might presumably undermine the
privatization policy. To date administrations have followed
this orientation, as was the case in 2003 when it reversed a
pay rise for public sector workers, despite a tripartite
agreement between government, labor and the International
Monetary Fund. Surprisingly, though, the government later
imposed an IMF-inspired wage freeze in 2004, drawing the
anger of labor which subsequently embarked on the first

[55]
national strike of the present decade (ZCTU, 2006; EIU,
2007).
Also, negotiations in the public service have been
incongruous, in part because the public employer negotiates
after the budget, and in part because of employers’ failure to
mandate its negotiating team, or specify the upper limit of
wage concession. Invariably, this culture moderates
employers’ readiness to grant workers’ demands, and
questions employers’ good faith. This practice has gained
prominence in recent years, and frustrates the two
negotiating teams.
The post-independence period through to the 1980s
was an extremely conflicting phase in the employment
relationship in Zambia. This period witnessed major
economic and political confrontations between the
government and labor, over the independence of the latter,
and also the introduction of an incomes policy that
emphasized wage moderation, a squeeze on wage bargaining
despite the prevailing high cost of living.
These confrontations continued in the 1990s, as
economic conditions worsened and job insecurity and non-
payment of terminal benefits manifested across economic
sectors. The absence of safety net measures to mitigate the
negative effect of economic restructuring contributed to the
poor labor relations.
However, there appears to be an air of stability in labor
relations, as indicated by fewer and relatively short strikes.
During the period 2001-2005, for example, the number of
strikes averaged 19 annually. A very high proportion of
these strikes – 65 per cent in 2005 – occurred in the public
service. One notable characteristic of the strikes of this
period was their spontaneity, which meant that they did not

[56]
follow the prescribed settlement procedures, and were
consequently illegal actions.
The statutory procedure for resolving disputes, such as
third party conciliation and through the Industrial Relations
Court, generally failed to resolve the trade disputes of the
period. The alternative route, which allows a union to put a
dispute to a strike vote, or a notice to lockout in the case of
the employers, was equally ineffective because of legal
encumbrances. In other words, economic reform policies
have placed the statutory procedures for resolving trade
disputes under considerable strain.
A case in point was a wage dispute between the
government and public sector unions, for which the
Industrial Relations Court made an award of a 45 per cent
increase to workers for 1995, on top of an earlier
government award of 30 per cent. However, after going
through the dispute resolution machinery, the government
refused to honor the court’s award, describing it as an
“irresponsible” action capable of derailing the budget. Cases
such as this naturally encourage unions to ignore the
statutory procedures, and to embark on strike even when
legal strikes are practically impossible in the country. In
other words, the evidence of an “improvement” in labor
relations in recent years masks continuing workers’
discontent, arising from poverty and high unemployment.
Casualization, which is accentuated by employers’
reluctance to bargain, makes workers’ action highly
adventurous.

Legislation Governing Unions

[57]
 The basis of the legal framework for industrial
relations in Zambia originates from the fundamental rights
in Part III of the Constitution of Zambia and more
particularly from a provision in Article 21 which in sub
article (1) reads “no person shall be hindered in the
enjoyment of his freedom of association and in particular to
form or belong to any trade union for the protection of his
interests.” The foregoing constitutional basis has been
transferred and amplified in the Industrial and Labor
Relations Act. The other legal instruments for industrial
relations in Zambia are the Employment Act, the Minimum
Wages and Conditions of Employment Act, the Employment
of Young Persons and Children Act, and the Factories Act.
In addition there is other relevant labor legislation whose
details are given in the Annex.
The Industrial and Labor Relations Act (Chapter 269
of the Laws) was first enacted in 1971 (Act No. 36/1971)
and replaced in 1990 (Act No. 36/1990). The current Act
was enacted in 1993 (Act No 27/1993). The Act provides the
legislative framework for the establishment, organization
and management of trade unions, employer’s organizations
and their federations. It provides for collective bargaining,
settlement of industrial conflicts, consultative mechanism
and the establishment and operation of the Industrial
Relations Court. In 1997 considerable amendments were
introduced to accommodate, among others, the dictates of
the liberalized political and economic environment. The
changes entrenched the principles of freedom of association
in accordance with the ILO standards and abolished the
policy of “one union one industry” which promoted
monopoly trade unionism. The new arrangement also made

[58]
it possible for enterprise level collective bargaining to
flourish.
The Employment Act (Chapter 268) was first enacted
in 1965 and is the basic employment law. It provides the
legal framework for employment relationships. It provides
for enforcement of contracts of employment, protection of
wages and welfare of employees. This Act was also
extensively amended in 1997 to take into account among
others ILO Conventions which Zambia has ratified relating
to minimum contractual age, termination of employment,
protection of wages, and maternity protection. Concern has
been expressed that there is insufficient protective
provisions in the Act covering work people infected with or
affected by HIV/AIDS pandemic. Consensus has since been
built up for a need to incorporate protective provisions in
this or other appropriate labor laws particularly with regard
to discrimination.
The Minimum Wages and Conditions of Employment
Chapter 276 is an enabling law. The Act empowers the state
through the Minister of Labor to prescribe minimum wages
and other conditions of employment for sectors where
collective bargaining is not possible or effective.
The Employment of Young Persons and Children Act
provide protection to young persons particularly in
occupations that are hazardous or injurious to their health,
safety and development. Zambia has now ratified the ILO
Convention No. 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of
Child Labor.
The Factories Act provides for occupational safety and
health in factories, construction sites and other workplaces.
The Act empowers Factory Inspectors to enforce
occupational safety and health regulations at workplaces.

[59]
Concern has been expressed over the limitations of this Act
particularly with regard to occupational safety and health in
the agricultural sector and indeed other employment places
falling outside the scope of the Act.
The Industrial and Labor Relations Act provides
detailed provisions on the rights of employees in respect of
trade union membership and its activities, the establishment
and organisation of trade unions and indeed employers’
associations. In particular section 5 of the Act as amended in
1997 provides every employee with, among others, the
following rights:-
 the right to take part in the formation of a trade
union and to be a member of a trade of his choice;
 the right to take part in the activities of a trade union
including the right to seek and hold trade union
office subject only to the rules of such trade union;
 the right to obtain leave of absence from work for
the purpose of taking part in trade union activities;
 the right not to be prevented, dismissed, penalized
victimized or discriminated against or deterred from
exercising the trade union rights;
 the right not to be a member of a trade union or be
required to relinquish membership;
 the right not to be dismissed victimized or
prejudiced for exercising the trade union rights;
 the right not to do work normally done by an
employee lawfully on strike or locked out unless
such work constitutes essential service.
The section further provides remedies for hindering the
exercise of the foregoing rights. In addition it grants for
autonomy of trade unions and their officers by providing
protection against manipulation by employers or their agents

[60]
such as through funding of such organizations. Similar
overall rights with appropriate modifications exist for
employers in section 37 of the Act.
Trade unions and employers organizations are required
to seek and obtain certificate of registration. Provided they
meet the basic procedural requirements, they are entitled to
be registered and issued with a certificate empowering them
to operate legitimately. The procedural requirements include
the mode of application, conditions as to minimum number
of persons necessary to constitute a trade union qualified for
registration, and the content of trade union rules.
The right to form belongs to or holds office does not
apply to employees in the Zambia Defense Forces, the
Police and Prison Services, the Zambia Security Intelligence
Service. Certain officers in the Judiciary are also excluded
from the foregoing rights. These include Registrars, Local
Court Justices, Magistrates and Judges. Other exclusions
may also be made under the Act by the Minister after
consultations and in agreement with the Tripartite
Consultative Labor Council. So far no other exclusions have
been made. The trade unions through their central
organizations have agitated for lifting the exclusion affecting
the Police and Prison Services so as to allow them the liberty
to establish and/or join trade unions like all other employees.
The proposal has not been supported by the Government.
In so far as Export Processing Zones are concerned, a
law to establish these zones has been enacted but no such
zones have so far been established although certain areas
have been identified, and from pronouncements made by
Government officials the zones may be exempted from
application of the industrial and labor relations law. The
possible exemption of normal; labor relations in the EPZs

[61]
has not been received well by the social partners particularly
that Zambia is a signatory to various international
instruments on labor relations.
The responsibility for the administration of the trade
union law reposes in the Labor Commissioner who is also
Registrar of trade unions. His responsibilities include
examination and scrutiny of Union rules prior to registration
or any amendments made thereto. The rules are determined
by the Union concerned but must contain certain basic
provisions which include the objectives of the union and the
classes of employees to be covered, the organizational
structure, rate and collection of subscription which may
include stop order arrangements, judicious application of
funds, benefits accruing to members, appointment and
removal of officers, inspection and audit of books of
accounts, conduct of strike ballots and dissolution of the
union. Where a Union is registered, its management is
governed strictly by its rules and there is little intercession
from the Commissioner. Apart from giving counsel to
ensure due observance of the rules, the Commissioner is
empowered to receive audit reports and information on
financial affairs at regular intervals. This arrangement is
intended to ensure that Union funds are handled properly
and in the interests of the general membership. De-
registration of a Union is rare and may occur only on the
request of the Union, or if the registration was obtained by
fraud or mistake, or the Union has willfully violated the law,
or the Union is literally dead. In any case before
deregistration is effected, the Union must be given an
opportunity to make representations and there is a right of
appeal to the Industrial Relations Court.

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 In any system of industrial relations there must
ultimately be a third party to assist the parties resolve their
differences or to umpire in both individual and collective
disputes. The maintenance of industrial peace is therefore a
matter which any responsible Government must be
concerned with. In Zambia this responsibility reposes in the
Ministry of Labor and Social Security. The Ministry
however appreciates that an approach based primarily on an
attitude of waiting for events to happen is inadequate. The
Labor Commissioner directly or through his field staff
maintains close and continuous touch with both trade union
leaders and employers on an informal basis to lend support
and counsel to the negotiation process and assure
satisfactory conclusion. It should be noted that though, the
Commissioner has no specific legal power to intervene in
collective negotiations, more often he is asked to intervene
by one or both parties and both trade unions and employers
have learnt to look upon this type of intervention with
confidence and to welcome the opportunity which it
provides to get out of difficulties.
The legal provisions dealing with dispute resolution
are largely contained in Part IX of the Industrial and Labor
Relations Act. These provisions are in addition to the
internal grievance procedures required to be contained in the
Recognition Agreement for each undertaking. The grievance
procedure should describe each of the stages for dealing
with disputes in the undertaking from when an issue is first
raised on the shop floor until it is referred to outside
conciliation or arbitration. Time limit is usually given for
moving from one stage to another. Apart from this and in
terms of section 64 of the Employment Act, Labor Officers

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are empowered to intervene particularly in individual
disputes.
In respect of collective disputes, the Act requires that
such disputes, provided they are not in an essential service,
to be referred to a conciliator or a board of conciliation
jointly appointed by the parties to the dispute or appointed
by the Minister from a panel of conciliators established in
consultation with employers and trade unions. If conciliation
fails, the dispute must be referred to the Court for arbitration
as in the case of essential service or the aggrieved party may
conduct a strike or lockout ballot which may then commence
ten days thereafter. Before the commencement of the strike
or lockout the Minister of Labor may intervene to try and
settle the dispute. Even after commencement of industrial
action, the Minister may, after consultation with the
Tripartite Consultative Labor Council apply to the Court for
a declaration that the continuance of the strike or lockout, is
not in the public interest. If the Court makes such
declaration, the strike or lockout must cease forthwith and
the matter in dispute will go to compulsory arbitration by the
Court.
Where the dispute involves essential service, such
dispute must be referred directly and immediately to the
Industrial Relations Court for arbitration. It is important to
observe and note that although the law has provided for
strike action; such action ought to be resorted to only if other
avenues fail because of the disruptive nature of strike action
to both the workers and employers. Furthermore such action
must emanate from disputes “relating to terms and
conditions of or affecting employment.” It is also important
to note that industrial action is particularly proscribed in
essential services. The essential services are as defined by

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the ILO and include hospital or medical services, electricity
generation and supply, supply and distribution of water,
sewerage, fire brigade and certain services in the mines.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) encompassing private
voluntary arbitration is also available particularly for
individual employment disputes.
The trade unions in Zambia are independent and free
form direct government interference. The general policy of
trade unions is to support or work with any political party or
government in power. However, they play a significant role
in the political system of the country. As earlier mentioned,
they offer checks and balances to the government.
The labor movement also offers advisory and
reconciliatory functions between the ruling party and the
opposition. There has been good collaboration between the
trade union and opposition groups. A typical example is the
formation of the Oasis forum, in which trade unions actively
participated. This forum was formed to oppose the Chiluba
government from amending the constitution to allow for
third Term for incumbent President. The trade union has, on
the other hand, worked with government on issues of
national importance such as acceptance to serve on the
Constitutional Review Commission and participate in the
National Convention when other parties refused to be part of
the process. Their justification for participating has been the
need to have worker’s views taken on board.
Though the trade unions have been allowed to operate
freely, their relationship with government is not always
without confrontation and intimidation. The poor working
conditions in the public service and unfavorable labor laws
are always a source of conflict between the two parties. The
recent public service strikes, for instance, contributed

[65]
significantly to the difference between government and
unions.
Government viewed trade unions as being unrealistic
when it failed to honor the payment of housing allowance as
agreed in the Collective Agreement. Therefore a lot of
intimidation of trade unions leaders and threats of
deregistration if they continued their industrial action as it
was considered illegal.
Trade union organizations in Zambia have managed to
remain independent and are able to voice out their position
against government because they don’t receive any funding
from government. They earn their resources through
membership subscription and cooperating partner support. In
the 1990s though, it was suspected that in order to weaken
the labor movement, government was behind the formation
of splinter unions and some of the internal problems of trade
unions. This allegation cannot however be proved.
The Zambian government generally has a neutral
attitude towards trade unions and sometimes side with them
in times of conflict with employers. However, this attitude
and support, is not guaranteed when government is the
culprit or it is their preferred investor in conflict with
workers. The government sided with employer even when
the employer was wrong by not paying worker services
charge as prescribed in the law of the land. Government,
usually threaten unions with deregistration if it feels it
cannot meet their demands.
Before liberalization, the Zambia Congress of Trade
Unions enjoyed the monopoly of being the sole trade union
federation, with the legal framework prescribing it to
function as such. Before then, only 17 trade unions existed
as the one- industry-one union principle guided the

[66]
organisation of trade unions. Though this legislative
provision facilitated the orderly conduct of industrial
relations, it violated the ILO principle on Freedom of
Association; Convention 87 in Particular – which provide
for the freedom of workers to form and join trade unions of
their choice.
The ratification of ILO Convention 87 in 1996
necessitated the 1997 amendment of labor law in order to
keep up with the provisions of the convention. This opened
up the possibility of workers joining and forming trade
unions of their own liking. The timing of this action was
suspected to have just been aimed at weakening the labor
movement as it came when trade unions resisted SAPs, due
to their negative social effects and resistance to the regimes
departure from the tenets of democracy. The opening up of
the legislation is said to have given rise to the birth of
splinter unions which later formed a trade union federation
known as, Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia
(FFTUZ) following differences after quadrennial congress
elections. In recent years, the labor movement has tried to
reposition itself in order to be able to face the challenges of
globalization. Their structures, approach to issues, and
policies have changed to conform to the changing labor
market situation.

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[68]
 CHAPTER FIVE

UNION MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

AND UNION DENSITY

The Role of ZCTU in Regulating Unions

ZCTU was created by an act of parliament in 1964 and

was intended by the UNIP government to be a channel for
communicating UNIP’s policies to the workers. ZCTU was
therefore initially considered an agent of the government
and given considerable financial and organizational
resources. As a result of the dose ties between the party and
the labor congress, the relationship between ZCTU, the
leadership of the national unions and the rank and file has
varied considerably in the period since independence. In the
following analysis, the question of who controls the central
political organ of the trade union movement (ZCTU) will be
discussed at length. Beyond doubt, ZCTU is today the most
powerful non-state association in Zambia as it embraces all
nineteen national unions in the country. 2 ZCTU
membership comprises more than 80 per cent of the total
work force in the formal sector employment and the
membership is today around 350,000. The Congress is
financed by contributions from the affiliated unions and the
national unions are required by the 1971 Industrial Relations

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Act to contribute 30 per cent of their membership
contributions to the Congress.
The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) was
established in 1965 and registered in 1966 under the Trade
Union and Trade Disputes Ordinance of 1949. Before
liberalization, the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions
enjoyed the monopoly of being the sole trade union
federation, with the legal framework prescribing it to
function as such. Before then, only 17 trade unions existed
as the one- industry-one union principle guided the
organization of trade unions. Though this legislative
provision facilitated the orderly conduct of industrial
relations, it violated the ILO principle on Freedom of
Association; Convention 87 in Particular - which provide for
the freedom of workers to form and join trade unions of their
choice.
The ratification of ILO Convention 87 in 1996
necessitated the 1997 amendment of labor law in order to
keep up with the provisions of the convention. This opened
up the possibility of workers joining and forming trade
unions of their own liking. The timing of this action was
suspected to have just been aimed at weakening the labor
movement as it came when trade unions resisted SAPs, due
to their negative social effects and resistance to the regimes
departure from the tenets of democracy.
The opening up of the legislation is said to have given
rise to the birth of splinter unions which later formed a trade
union federation known as, Federation of Free Trade Unions
of Zambia (FFTUZ) following differences after quadrennial
congress elections. In recent years, the labor movement has
tried to reposition itself in order to be able to face the
challenges of globalization. Their structures, approach to

[70]
issues, and policies have changed to conform to the
changing labor market situation.
The policies of neo-liberal economic reforms in
particular privatization coupled with globalization has not
spared the trade union movements in the Zambia. According
to some trade unionists interviewed the change process in
the polity and economy over the past ten year have been
overwhelming to a point that trade union responses have
tended to lag behind the change process. The challenges that
trade unions are faced with in the Zambia are enormous. In
the quest to better the welfare of their members, trade unions
and the wider society have often found themselves in
conflict with government.
The advent of change brought about by the September,
2011 elections, has brought back on the labor scene the hope
that a pro-workers government had been ushered in to power
which would uphold workers’ rights and improve their
welfare. The Patriotic Front public pronouncements,
particularly the principle of “more money in your pockets”
has genuinely captivated the Zambian worker.
During the past six years of the PF from 2011-2017,
the legal framework relating to the formation, organization
and running trade unions has progressively been amended
but that the amendments have not translated to more
efficient or more effective or more powerful trade unions.
Instead the amendments have tended to weaken the trade
unions. The memberships do not feel that they are in control
of their own affairs, including the section of those that may
lead them. This has given rise to the view that the
Department of Labor, is more concerned with the control of
trade union activities than anything else; that they are not
concerned with the enforcement of labor laws as seen by the

[71]
Ministry’s failure to facilitate the training, and deployment
of labor officers throughout the country to supervise the
employer. Instead, the concentration has been on the trade
unions.
Declining economic activities in the late 1980s and
economic adjustment policies of the 1990s contributed
significantly to the decline in employment levels in all
sectors. CSO reports that formal sector employment
declined from 543,300 in 1990 to about 476,347 in 2000
(CSO, 2002). Trade union membership has thus been on a
downward trend. For instance, between 1990 and 1995,
ZCTU membership dwindled from 477,000 to 274,000 or by
43%, due to neo Liberal policies. The drastic decline has
been attributed to the privatization, liquidation and
restructuring of public enterprises, and public service reform
programmes which entailed the shading off of workers. The
restructuring and consequent privatization of the mining
conglomerate, Zambia consolidated copper mines (ZCCM),
contributed significantly to the fall in trade union
membership towards the end of the 1990s. The mineworkers
Union of Zambia (MUZ), which was the largest ZCTU,
affiliate lost membership from 38,000 in 1998 to 24,245 in
2002 (ZCTU, 2002).
Recruitment efforts of both new and old trade onions
have not had much impact as the total number of jobs lost
has been far much higher than those that have been created.
Most sectors like manufacturing and mining are no longer
vibrant. Agriculture which provided a lot of jobs for the
formal sector, on the other hand declined significantly due to
poor policy implementation and bad climatic conditions.
The HIV/AIDS, which in the 1990s had a prevalence rate of
20% in the adult population also contributed and continues

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to do so, to the downfall of the trade union membership. The
teaching service, medical personnel, banking and transport
sectors are among the worst affected.
The decline in formal employment has resulted the fall
in the trade union density from between 70 and 80% in the
1980s to barely above 50% in the 1990s and thereafter. The
fall in union density is attributed to changing employment
practices to temporal/casual jobs, which do not fall under the
legal requirement for unionization.
The liberalization of the economy adversely affected
women who occupied less paying low skill jobs. On the
other hand youth unemployment has been on the increase as
very few of the youth entering the labor force are able to
find jobs in the dwindling formal sector. It is estimated that
only 30% of tertiary education graduates manage to get
employed in the formal sector in the first year after
graduation. Employment creation has not been able to keep
up with the rate of growth of the labor force. There has
therefore not been any significant growth in women and
youth participation in trade union activities. For the 26
ZCTU affiliates, only five have a female membership of
more than 50%, and these are in the female dominated
sectors (ZCTU, 2002).
With the decline in the mining and manufacturing
sectors, the public service has become the stronghold of the
labor movement. It boasts of more than 49% of the total
trade union membership and the largest number of unions all
together. The financial services sector has continued to
decline due to among other factors, the introduction of new
technologies, which are replacing labor.

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Trade Union Structure

The trade union national centers are dogged by similar

problems as those of individual unions or their affiliates.
Because they rely on their affiliates for subscriptions, trade
union centers have equally been affected by falling
membership levels which in turn has affected the provision
of services to the general membership. The ZCTU therefore,
rely on cooperating partner’s resources for service provision.
In the recent past, there has also been increased cooperation
between employers and workers’ organisation particularly in
the training of workers. An example is the joint HIV/AIDS
training programme being run in close collaboration
between employers and trade unions. The programmes run
with support from cooperating partners include:
 Budget analysis
 PRSP and domestic and global socio-economic
policy
 Gender mainstreaming and child labor
 Research training
 Occupational health, safety and environment
 Organisation and recruitment
 Industrial and labor relations
 Collective bargaining and negotiation skills
 Lobbying skills
 Governance and democracy
 Information and public relations
 International labor standards and labor legislation
 HIV/AIDS
 Leadership skills etc.
These programmes are meant to strengthen the
capacity of trade unions in engaging with other stakeholders

[74]
on issues of concern. The ZCTU uses both its members of
staff and consultants in conducting these training
programmes.
National centers also provide other services to their
affiliates, which among other things include representation
of workers interests at various levels. They sometimes
participate in bargaining for improved working conditions,
job creation, programme, campaigns against violations of
workers’ rights, etc.
The ZCTU’s services extend beyond those that are in
formal employment. To this end, an informal sector
intervention wing (Concept for Informal sector Employment
Promotion – CISEP) was formed in 1998 with support from
FES and STEP-IN. The approach used by CISEP to reach
the informal economy include among other things:
 Creating general awareness before and after
retrenchment
 Creating essential business awareness
 Facilitating psychological/behavioral change pre and
after retirement
 Creating initiatives, developing creativity and
responsibility
 Re-skilling, retraining and imparting new skills, etc.
 Providing training in basic business management
 Facilitating formation of association
 Providing coaching and counseling, etc.
Currently CISEP has three offices namely in Lusaka,
Kitwe, and Chingola. The Kitwe office, which is based at
ZCTU head office, ZUFIAW, an affiliate of FFTUZ, uses a
different approach in reaching out to the informal economy.
It has established an informal economy desk which registers
former members who are in the informal economy and

[75]
through brochures, publicize their activities/products to
current union members and other workers, thus creating a
market for their products.
The neo liberal policies which led to the liberalization
of the labor market resulted in the creation of new and
various structures. Splinter unions formed their own
federation, FFTUZ. The FFTUZ had difficulties in
registering as they had to fulfill a number of conditions that
were required for them to be registered. Though FFTUZ was
formed in 1994, it was not until 1998 that it managed to
register as the second trade union federation.
The ZCTU is the largest of the two federations with
about 90% of the total trade union membership base. The
FFTUZ draws most of its members from unions that for
various reasons chose to disaffiliate or break away from
ZCTU affiliates. A number of these unions have been
formed due to among others things, dissatisfaction with the
services provided by original unions, political interference
and selfishness among trade union leaders. Generally the
labor movement in Zambia is autonomous. Their general
practice has been to work with any political party in powers.
No trade union organization has any direct links with any
political party, though individual members are free to belong
to parties of their choice.
The federations have established offices with full-time
and part-time workers. The ZCTU has its head offices in
Kitwe with one regional office in Lusaka. They both have
regional or grass-root structures which, however, have no
established offices due mainly to financial constraints. The
location of the ZCTU head office in Kitwe has some
historical explanation as the labor movement was born on
the Copperbelt and had most of its members there in the

[76]
early days. National unions or affiliates in most cases have
head offices with regional officers in provisional centers. All
the trade union centers have established their activities along
the line of rail, which stretches from Livingstone, in
Southern Province to Chililabombwe on the Copperbelt.
The railway line was established in pre-colonial days
to serves as the export route for copper and import route for
raw material. Major economic activities evolved along this
line. Therefore most workers are found in regions along this
line and this justifies the concentration of trade unions along
this line. There has been increased collaboration between the
two federations, especially in tripartite consultations.
Affiliates also collaborate at various occasions and in
collective bargaining as indicated in the earlier mentioned
case of public sector unions, which formed an alliance in
fighting for improved conditions of service.

Individual Unions

Within their mandate, individual trade union

organizations provide a wide range of services, though this
has been hampered by numerous internal and external
factors. The services that unions provide to their members
include:
 Negotiation for improved working and living
conditions through collective bargaining
 Advocacy and campaigns against violation of labor
and human rights, and bad governance, etc.
 Representation at various levels in numerous organs
such as works committee, constitutional review
commissions, etc.

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  Training of members in a number of social,
economic, political and trade union issues
 Provisional of social services such as skills
development for informal economy workers, through
relevant structures set up such as the Concept for
Informal Sector Employment Promotion (CISEP).
 Workers’ education
 HIV/AIDS training
Limited resources have hampered the capacity of trade
unions to provide adequate services to their members, as
they have to divide the little resources between competing
needs. In certain cases, for instance, they have to rely on
external resources to formulate a position through
consultants. Lack of such resources sometimes evaporates
trade union position on certain issues in policies, as they
cannot always afford to engage consultants.
The Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of
Zambia (C S A W U Z) is the largest trade union with a
membership of about 35,000 in 2002. This union organizes
its members in most public service institutions which
include government ministry head offices, provincial and
district offices health and semi-autonomous government
institutions.
Professional workers unions form the smallest unions
as only a few professionals are unionized because most of
them are in middle management and have rather gone
without unions. The other contributing factor is the fact that
trade unions are perceived as organizations for the less
educated by most professionals. The average membership
therefore among professionals is about 200. The Zambia
Union of Financial Institutions and Allied Workers
(ZUFIAW), which is the biggest affiliate of FFTUZ has

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however about 5,000 members most of whom work in
banks.
Public sector Unions are the well organized and
stronger than those operating in the private sector. This is
due mainly to the large size of the work force in the sector
and the existence of similar structures. Private sectors unions
have had a tough going especially after the liberalization of
the economy, which saw the coming in of new investors,
most of whom have practiced ant-union tactics. Organizers
have confessed of facing the hardest resistance in the private
sector, as most owners of capital are more profit oriented
and view unions as a hindrance to its drive. The difficult
economic situation that most unions are in has prevented
them from employing full-time employees, as they cannot
afford to maintain a work force of any size. Most unions are
run by some of the elected officials such as the General
Secretary and deputies. At enterprise level shop stewards are
responsible for trade unions activities. The small unions
though do not have offices, as their incomes are too low to
sustain even the cheapest offices.

Decision Making Structures

The general practice in terms of relationship has been

the autonomous existence of affiliates. Federations in most
cases are not directly involved in the running or decision
making structures of their affiliates. National centers mainly
provide advisory, training and reconciliatory services to
their members. And when need arises, especially during
quadrennial conferences, provide them with financial
support. Since affiliates are the ‘owners’ of national centers,
they provide the financial, leadership and institutional

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support. Their ability to do so has however been reduced by
the reduction of their membership which is their main source
of income.
Trade union organizations in Zambia have similar
organizational structures. They in general have a congress as
the highest decision making organ which meets every after
four years. This is where top leadership is elected and
constitutional and strategic decisions are made.
Usually this organ is comprised of selected unions’
leaders of various union structures. The quadrennial organ is
followed by other executive bodies in the hierarchy, which
are responsible for the running of specific union activities
for specified regular periods shorter than four years. In most
cases, these executive bodies meet more than once in a year,
as specified in Constitutions of individual unions. However,
the day-to-day running of union activities is usually in the
hands of the General Secretary/Executive Secretary with two
or more of his/her elected assistants. Most decisions are
made by these people though here is a provision for decision
making by officials at lower structures to a limit extent.
Each individual union’s constitution specifies the role
of each organ and the frequency of its meetings. There is
generally strict adherence to the provisions of constitutors
especially when it comes to the frequency of meetings. This
is only hindered by the scarcity of financial resources.
Important decisions are made by the central authorities
but there is little or no room for personalization of decision
making as leaders account for their decisions at meetings of
executive organs. Usually no critical decisions are made by
smaller organs.
Though the number of women in top leadership has
not grown significantly, some part of the leadership

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structure. The majority of women in trade union decision
making structures occupy positions with less responsibility.
In the ZCTU Executive Board of 10 elected officials, for
instance, only 2 are women and both are trustees. The
FFTUZ has however got a woman as president, though the
executive is also dominated by men. Only two national
unions, the Zambia Union of Financial Institutions and
Allied Workers (ZUFIAW) and the Hotel Catering and
Allied Workers Union of Zambia (HCAWUZ) have female
General Secretaries. The trade union movement has however
come up with women structures which, known as Women
Committees, seek to narrow the gender imbalance. The
FFTUZ on the other hand has realized the under
representation of the youth in trade unions and have thus
come up with a Youth Committee which like the women
committee is responsible for the integration of youths in
trade union structures.
The trade union movement in Zambia provides one of
the good examples of democratic institutions in the country.
Elections are generally held on a regular basis, in a free and
fair manner with little or no reports of malpractices and
external influence. The 1990s which gave rise to the birth of
splinter unions though had problems of malpractices as
external forces tried to control the internal operations of
unions. Decision making is also usually done through
consensus; with the majority taking the day.

[81]
 CHAPTER SIX

THE RIGHT TO STRIKE

Strikes and indeed lockouts are both recognized as

legitimate actions that may be undertaken by workers or
employers in furtherance of their dispute. However, such
actions become lawful only if they are resorted to after due
process and only if they do not involve “essential services”
as previously defined. It is important to note that the right to
strike is strictly limited to parties to the dispute. This means
that sympathy strikes over political matters are not

[82]
legitimate under the law. It is also important to note that no
strike may take place after the Industrial Relations Court has
given a decision.
Certain protective provisions have been incorporated
in the Industrial Relations Act. These include the right of an
employee not to do work normally done by an employee
who is lawfully on strike or who is locked out, unless such
work constitutes an essential service, and where a lawful
strike or lockout, takes place, the existing recognition and
collective agreement, if any, between the parties may not be
deemed to have been breached by reason only of such action
or the contract of employment of each employee involved in
the strike or lockout may not be deemed to have been
breached only by such action.
In spite of the legal limitations on the right to strike,
large scale strikes and many spontaneous work stoppages of
short duration at enterprise level have nevertheless occurred
designed to draw attention to poor working conditions and
set in motion negotiations or conciliation. In the recent past,
the public service has been rocked by spontaneous strikes
over failure by the Government to implement terms of a
concluded collective agreement on payment of housing
allowance. The matter has since been referred to the
Industrial Relations Court.

Industrial Relations Court

The Industrial Relations Court established under the

Act is an extension of the dispute settlement procedure. The
Court has original and exclusive jurisdiction in industrial
relations matters and appeals to decisions of the Court lie to
the Supreme Court on any point of law or any point of

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mixed law and fact. The Court has responsibility to do
substantial justice to all matters before it and is therefore
relatively free from technicalities that abound in ordinary
courts. Subject to appeal, any decisions of the Court are
binding on the parties to the matter and on any parties
affected.

It is often suggested that the legal framework for

resolving disputes in Zambia is wieldy and therefore
contributes to unrest. It is also suggested that because of
increased work load which has multiplied since the
dismantling of the parastatals sector was embarked upon in
the early 1990s, settlement of disputes by the Court is
inordinately delayed. It is further suggested that the delays
in the Court are worsened by the involvement of legal
practitioners. Whilst it is true that the workload at the Court
increased noticeably following the dismantling of the large
parastatals sector, the criticisms are largely without basis.
Assiduous application to due process by all concerned
can favorably mitigate the delays, whilst the training in the
preparation, analysis and presentation of material by legal
practitioners can contribute to a reduction in the time
consumed in dealing with matters before the Court. Perhaps
it’s the attitude of the people involved rather than the
procedures in place and institutions that have been created
which cause difficulties. Furthermore the introduction of
court driven mediation in 2002 is expected to reduce the
workload of the Court allowing it to hasten the dispute
resolution tempo. According to available statistics at the
Court between September 2002 and October 2003 over 100
cases were successfully settled through mediation whilst 280
were pending.

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Workers Participation at Shop Floor Level
The essence of worker participation at the shop floor
level is to afford workers and employers at the level of the
undertaking to consult on matters of mutual concern
particularly relative to work and outside the scope of
collective bargaining in order to engender cooperation and
commitment in the interests of efficiency and good
industrial relations.
Prior to 1993, the Industrial Relations Act provided for
the establishment of works councils in line with the political
ideology of the period. The councils which were composed
of representative of management and workers were founded
on the basis of cooperation, collaboration and mutuality of
interests and were to be distinguished from collective
bargaining mechanism which is conflictual in nature.
However in practice the roles of the two were blurred
largely because of insufficient sensitization. Following the
political developments that occurred in 1991, the works
councils, and indeed party committees at places of work,
were subsequently phased out. Today collective bargaining
remains the major cornerstone of workers participation in
Zambia. In some sectors, such as the financial sector,
institutional consultative mechanisms have been established
at enterprise level for purposes of consultations on matters
of mutual concern falling outside the ambit of bargaining.

Trade Unions Representation in Tripartite and other

Consultative Structures
At national level employers’ and the workers’
organizations through their national centers take part in a
variety of consultative organs designed to advise the
Government on economic development matters relating to

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determination of wages policy, the elaboration of labor law
and issues of social security, safety and health at the
workplace, vocational training etc.
These organs include the Tripartite Consultative Labor
Council and the National Economic Advisory Council. The
social partners are also represented on various other organs
such as the Boards of national social security institutions,
the Technical Education and Vocational and
Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA), the
Privatization Agency, etc.
The Tripartite Consultative Labor Council has been
established under section 79 of the Industrial and Labor
Relations Act. The Council is the most significant institution
through which the tripartite partners discuss labor market
issues and other issues of a social and economic nature
particularly impacting on employment. The mandate of the
Council as prescribed under the Act is “to advise the
Government on all issues relating to labor matters,
manpower development and utilization and any other matter
referred to the Council by the Government. It should be
emphasized that the role of the Council is purely advisory.
The Government is not bound by the decisions of the
Council. This situation has been a bone of contention in the
Council where the workers representatives have demanded
that the role of the Council should go beyond being
advisory. They have demanded that decisions taken by the
Council should be binding on the tripartite parties. Whilst
the law states that the Council shall advise the Government
on matters referred to it by the Government, the Rules of
Procedure as adopted by the Council make it possible for the
Council to deliberate on matters emanating from the social

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partners. In this connection the Council has dealt with many
issues impacting on labor whether directly or indirectly.
The Tripartite Consultative Labor Council is made up
of an equal number of representatives of the Government,
employers and workers. The members representing the
workers and employers are nominated by the registered
trade unions and employers organizations respectively. The
Government representatives are nominated by the Minister
of Labor who is the Chairperson of the Council. Three vice
Chairpersons assist the chair person. Two of these Vice
Chairpersons are nominated by the employers and workers
respectively whilst the third vice chairperson is the Deputy
Minister of Labor who is also the leader of the Government
delegation. The Chairperson is empowered to invite officials
from various Government departments, which deal with any
issues before it. The social partners are also entitled to invite
their advisors who may participate in debates but will not
take part in final decision-making.
The Council is required to meet at least twice a year.
For various reasons however sometimes the Council has
failed to meet as required. The failure to meet regularly has
been a major source of complaint by the social partners. The
Council has played a critical role in the process of reviewing
labor laws and has generally afforded the social partners an
opportunity to discuss many issues of mutual importance
related to employment policy and its implementation.
Early this year the council considered various
proposed changes to the Industrial and Labor Relations Act
and the Employment Act. These changes are likely to be
presented to Parliament in the near future. The Council,
through one of its subcommittees has also been involved in
determining statutory minimum wages and other conditions

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of employment. As regards the National Economic Advisory
Council, this Council is a policy analysis forum and
provides advice to the Government. The Council is broad-
based and provides a flexible forum with capacity to
influence public policy and development issues. Both the
Zambia Congress of Trade Unions and the Zambia
Federation of Employers are represented and take part in the
activities of the Council by high ranking officials.

CHAPTER SEVEN

ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTHS AND

WEAKNESS

Not many trade union organizations have the capacity to

sustain their day-to-day activities, better still the engagement
of full-time staff. The ZCTU and some of it major affiliates,
nevertheless, have a strong composition of full-time staff
who assist in the delivery of services to members. When
need arises external consultants and academics are used.
The organizational strength of trade unions therefore is
the existence of a base of qualified personnel and its ability
to collaborate with other institution with personnel of other
disciplines than those of union staff. The biggest weakness
has been the lack of resources to attract and retain highly
qualified and experienced personnel, like lawyers. This in
some cases results in the payment of high fees when external
consultants are engaged; and sometimes lack of provision of
some services to members due to lack of personnel.

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 Financial Resources
Falling total union membership as a result of declining
economic activities, retrenchments and HIV/AIDS have in
turn contributed to the fall in trade union incomes. Many
trade unions have had more than a 30%, some up to 60%
decline in their incomes. This has equally contributed to the
decline in the total number of services provided to members.
Membership subscriptions remain the main source of
income for most unions, including national center. Though
the proportion may have declined due to economic factors,
subscriptions are still an important source of income. Trade
union members generally subscribe about 1 to 2% of their
monthly incomes. Between 70% – 80% of the total
subscriptions go to national unions and rest is usually
remitted to the trade union centers or federation.
External support from cooperating organizations such
as the FES, ACILS, ILO-Norway, FNV, FGTB, SASK,
CTUC to name but a few, has sustained some of the
activities of trade unions which could have collapsed with
the fall in income from subscriptions. Very few trade unions
have alternative viable sources of income generating
ventures due to the lack of initial capital to set up such
ventures.
The liberation of the labor market affected the due
shop order system. Employers do not automatically remit
union dues to trade unions, as was the case in the past, but
unions have to do the collection. Most trade unions therefore
spend a lot of their resources collecting the dues. This has
contributed to the increased cost of collecting dues and has
contributed the lowering of the real value of the total
collection.
The dawn of democratic governance with emphasis on
transparency, in the trade union movement, has contributed

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to improvement in the financial management of trade union
funds. The current system obliges union officials to account
regularly for all the funds and to be prepared to reveal the
accounts to the general membership. On the other hand,
reputable external auditors audit the accounts. This has
minimized or wiped out fraudulent financial management
practices. Cases of mismanagement of union are sternly
dealt with and have in most cases resulted in loss of union
positions by leaders found wanting. On the other hand, the
Industrial and Labor Relations Act obligates trade unions to
submit their audited accounts to Ministry of Labor for the
monitoring of the management of financial resources. In the
past trade union were also obliged to notify government of
any requests made for external support but since the
liberalization of the economy, this is no longer the case.

International Cooperation

The labor movement in Zambia owes a lot of

appreciation to genuine international cooperating partners
who have through the years continued to offer material and
technical support. The decline in trade union incomes that
followed the fall in membership following the privatization,
liquidation and restructuring under structural Adjustment
Programmes, would have led to the paralysis of the labor
movement in Zambia. However, international cooperation
has kept the labor movement fully alive and able to provide
vital services to its members. ZCTU’s external cooperating
organizations include:

 Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO-

Norway)
 Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)

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  American Centre for International Labor Solidarity
(ACILS)
 Japanese International Labor Foundation
 Netherlands Federation of trade Unions (FNV)
 International Labor Organisation (ILO)
 International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU)
 Commonwealth Trade Union Council (CTUC)

Almost all programmes that the ZCTU offer are

supported by external cooperating organizations through
North-South trade union and other bilateral support. These
programmes include:

 Administrative and organisation support - LO-

Norway
 Child Labor – LO IPEC
 Economic Literacy / Budget analysis – FES /ACILS
 Globalization /NEPAD / PRSP – FES / LO-
Norway / ICFTUAFRO
 Industrial Relations - FES
 HIV/AIDS – ICFTU-AFRO/FES/JILAF-RENGO
 Research Training –ICFTU-AFRO
 Gender – FES, ILO, FNV
The outlined programmes continue to contribute to the
strengthening of the trade union movement in Zambia. The
programmes are mainly aimed at enhancing the aptitude of
trade union officials in order for them to effectively
represent the general membership and participate in various
national and international fora.
International cooperation therefore has positively
impacted the trade union movement as it is able to provide

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some of the services that it would not have provided had it
had no external funding considering the decline in resources.
Training programmes have helped in the widening of trade
union scope of understanding, interpreting and engagement
in different fora, even well beyond trade union horizons.
Similarly, external exposure has enabled trade union
officials to share experiences and come up with joint
programmes aimed at addressing common programmes.

The only weakness with international cooperation is that it is

usually not well coordinated, thus leading to duplication of
activities. The cooperating organizations do not consult each
other on which aspect of trade union activities to support
leading to certain activities receiving more support while
others, which may not be donor priorities, are left
unattended. Some donors dictate where their resources are to
be directed. This also contributed to lack of focus on priority
issues on the part of trade union organizations.

FFTUZ´s external cooperating organizations include:

 WSM of Belgium through the World Confederation

of Labor WCL
 Democratic Organisation of African Workers Trade
Unions (DOAWTU) based in Lome, Togo
 International Labor Organisation Strengthening
Labor Administration in Southern Afrika (SLASA)

The programmes supported by the above organizations

include:

 Collective Bargaining – ILO SLASA

 Sensitization of membership – DOAWTU

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  ILO Norms – DOAWTU
 Capacity Building WSM
 Mediation – ILO SLASA

Challenges Facing Trade Unions

Most of the challenges of the labor movement in
Zambia are a result of external factors; which are caused by
among other things:
Unfavorable Labor Laws
The amended labor laws do not adequately protect
workers from violations of their rights from employers. One
of the reasons for amending the Laws was to make them
conform to the dictates of a liberal system. This has given
employers, especially new investors, a leverage to violate
workers’ rights at will. Some of the new employers have
taken advantage of loopholes in the labor laws by running
away from the obligations that go with long-term
employment by using casual labors. And because the law no
longer makes it an obligation for employers to recognize
trade unions, there has been growing anti-union tendencies
among new investors, some of whom are on record of
abandoning workers without paying them terminal benefits
on repatriation or closure.
The current labor laws are also weak on the
engagement of expatriate staff by new investors and the
differences between their incomes and those of local staff.
Most new investors have taken advantage of the situation by
recruiting their nationals in management positions and
paying them heftily, compared to local experts of similar
qualifications and experience.
The strength of a trade union lies in numbers; therefore
reduction in membership means that trade unions have little

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impact it terms of action to force out their demands from
employers. Their diminished resource base also means that
their capacities to offer comprehensive services has been
constrained, and therefore have to rely on external support to
offer even the basic services.

HIV / AIDS
The high HIV / AIDS infection rates among the
productive age groups have impacted negatively on labor in
terms of productivity and medical costs. For the trade union,
the challenge lies in the resulting loss of membership
through the death from the pandemic. On the other hand,
trade union resources are wasted when they lose leaders to
the disease in whom they invest a lot of resources in terms
of training.
Growing Informal Economy
The growing informal economy as a result of shrinking
formal economy employment continues to pose a great
challenge to the labor movement which has to find ways or
means of intervening. The informal economy is diverse and
has numerous problems such as rising reports of violation of
workers’ rights which requires the trade union movement to
extend its coverage to include informal economy workers.
Regrettably, the current legislation on provides for formal
employment workers to join trade unions and most
constitutions of trade unions have similar restrictions. On the
other hand, there is need for the trade union movement to
participate in providing retrenched workers with services
such as skills training. All these require extra resources, but
coincide with the general fall in resources.
Lack of National Policy on Employment

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 The lack of a national policy to help direct the
activities of the labor market has also posed a great
challenge to the labor movement. This lack of policy makes
it difficult for trade unions to follow up government on a
number of labor issues as things are done unsystematically
or without aiming to achieve any goal. Monitoring and
evaluation of labor market performance is a near impossible
thing with no guiding policy.

Economic and Social Policy and the Attendant Policy

Measures
Most national policies have little content of the safe
guard of jobs or their creation. Restructuring of the public
service, for instance, accounts for more job losses than those
created. The PRSP on the other hand has no comprehensive
outline on how more jobs are to be created. It is only hoped
that the policy measures it contains will also lead to
employment creation.
Lack of Genuine Consultation among Social Partners
Though institutions of social dialogue exist, such as
the Tripartite Consultative Labor Council (TCLC), the
resolutions of the council are not legally binding. Therefore
social partners do not usually feel obliged to adhere to the
recommendations. Government is on record of having
changed the contents of the recommendations some
Statutory Instruments from the TCLC. This and other similar
actions have brought the credibility of the Council in to
question.
In their reaction to these and other challenges, trade
unions have undertaken a number of measures aimed at
protecting their members. Some of the measures include

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capacity building programmes through education and
training of trade union officials and members in labor and
other issues; research on socio-economic issues for policy
response and alternative submissions; campaigns for social
justice; social dialogue to name but a few.
The trade union movement also works together on
issues of common concern. Public service workers for
instance formed a loose alliance in pressing for improved
working conditions which declared an all-round public
service strike in August 2003. Such alliances though viable
are not a promise of amalgamation as a number of issues
such as leadership; policy issues etc. have to be tackled.
The right to trade union pluralism is inherent in the
terms and provisions of ILO Convention No. 87 “Freedom
of association and protection of the right to organize” and as
such is codified in constitutions and in the labor legislation
of many African countries. This freedom to formation of
trade unions, coupled with emerging employee democratic
rights has continued to be a major factor in proliferation of
trade unions in Zambia and has also led to enactment and
review of laws to support such. However, most of all these
unions seem to be bent on one goal that of advancing
employees’ (members) interests and what seems to differ,
one may argue, is the mode and machinery of achieving that
goal.
The financial power of trade unions was strengthened
by the introduction of the “check-off system”
(automatic deduction and transfer of trade union
membership dues) while the often politically
imposed trade union leadership was granted lucrative
posts and opportunities in the party, in government or
in parastatals. Finally, employees automatically became

[96]
paid-up union members, whereby yet a formal right to
terminate the automatic membership did mostly exist.
Despite all this, ZCTU managed to either withstand
complete absorption by the respective regime, or to
liberate themselves again from the influence of the
ruling party and the government. Political control also
reached beyond the trade union centers and down to
the level of sectorial or industrial unions. The close
relationship between state power and organized labor
only started to unwind in the eighties.
This was triggered by structural adjustment
programmes, which, at the time, most African governments
were forced to apply in reaction to the debt crisis.
These programmes in particular affected the traditional
trade union constituency. Expenditure and staff reductions
in the public service, the closing or selling off of loss-
making state-owned enterprises plus import liberalization
led to massive job losses and – in combination with
ongoing high inflation – to the decline of real wages in
the formal sector. As a result, this did not only
undermine the legitimacy of the political regimes with
their previous beneficiaries in the urban areas. It also led to
unrest within the ranks of the unions now shaken by
heavy membership losses, as their leaders proofed to be
unable or unwilling to resist job losses and reduction in
standards or to find strategic answers to halt or even reverse
this decline. At the same time, this contributed to the
loosening of the ties between ruling parties and labor unions.
Following the liberalization of the labor market some
important developments have occurred. The free exercise by
the workers of their right of association has manifested in
the emergency of many more and often competing unions

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seeking registration and recognition. For the workers,
multiplication of unions has meant fragmentation and
weakening their ability to articulate and champion the
workers cause effectively.
For the employers, the multiplication of trade unions
has made collective bargaining cumbersome as the employer
has to deal with a number of unions. In the education sector
there are currently four Unions catering for more or less the
same classes or categories of employees and all of them
have been recognized by the employer as bargaining
partners. The situation has been compounded by the refusal
of some of the unions to bargain jointly. In the mining
sector, previously renowned for stable industrial relations,
new unions have emerged bringing in its wake recipe for
potential instability in labor relations in this key sector.
In the implementation of the liberalized economic and
labor market policies, a number of challenging key issues
have emerged. These include notable reluctance of new
investors to tolerate and deal with trade unions leading to
preponderance of casualization of labor and the use of
contract labor. Other challenges relate to retrenchments and
redundancies, nonpayment of benefits when due, and the
effects of HIV/AIDS pandemic on human resources and its
development. These are issues of grave concern to the
Government and the social partners needing concerted
attention and effort.
Trade unions today face many challenges as a result of
neoliberal globalization and its resultant decomposition of
labor. To start with, the migration- the free mobility of labor
-has created a problem for trade unions. Migrant workers
have been seen as undermining well established labor norms
and, for that matter, a ‘difficult to organize’ sector. Much as

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workers are divided by gender, age and ethnicity they are
also divided according to national origin and citizen status.
Additionally, at the end of the twentieth century
international trade unionism was confronted by a major
dilemma. On one hand there were more wage earners than
ever before. The new International Congress of Trade
Unions (ITUC) and Global Union Federations together have
more than 150 million members and cover more countries,
unions and workers than ever before. This was due to the
incorporation of most of the formerly communist and
national-populist unions.
But neo-liberal globalization implied the simultaneous
weakening of traditional unionism's century-old national-
industrial base, the shift of that base to countries of the
South (particularly China), the undermining of traditional
job security and union rights, and the decline or
disappearance of support from social-democratic parties,
social-reformist governments and the most powerful inter-
state agencies. Moreover, the unions were being confronted
with a fact that-while they were entrenched in their
industrial, national or industrial-relations cocoons-they had
never previously felt it necessary to face: in this globalizing
world of labor maybe only one worker in 18 was unionized.
Globalization has also involved an increase in the
power of MNCs. The rise of MNCs has presented major
challenges in unions’ ability to promote and protect
workers’ rights. In fact, globalization has had considerable
impacts on government policies by limiting the capacity of
national governments to implement policies regarding the
economy, work and employment. Some analysts argue that
by shifting their investments to countries offering inferior
social protection plans and lower wages, multinational

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corporations have contributed to the deterioration of
working conditions in industrialized countries and
competition between workers in the developed and
developing world.
Furthermore, the international trade union movement
has historically been characterized by division, antagonism
and internal conflict. The origins of this division emerged in
1920 when the international confederation of Christian trade
unions, later the World Confederation of Labor (WCL) was
formed. This was followed by the creation in 1945 of the
World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which, for a
few years, brought together trade union movements of
communist and social-democratic allegiance.
In the present decade, dodged commitment to market-
oriented policies and good governance has led to
considerable improvement in the economy. However, the
various policy measures in stemming growing joblessness
and poverty have had unfavorable effect on the employment
relationship, notably the role, status and behavior of labor
market actors, institutions and processes.
As long as the dynamics of most African
economies is predominantly limited to the survival
economy of the informal sector and a thorough
modernization is not forthcoming, the prospects of
stronger unionism are slim. To conclude, that in the face
of the ongoing informalization and the new imperatives of
‘neo-liberal’ globalization Africa-can labor unions can
therefore be written off as relicts of the past, would be, at
least, premature as there are important counter-trends as
well. Current trends in foreign investment in Africa
clearly point to new and not yet fully exploited
potentials for trade union organisation that exist even

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in times of globalization, although the number of
jobs created may not yet be very significant, in relation to
the unemployment problem or compared to the size of the
informal economy.
Interestingly, most of this new foreign investment in
African economies is neither based on the availability
of cheap labor nor do labor costs play a significant
role. Targeting the continent’s natural resources and
mineral wealth, it mainly takes place in the mining and
energy sector which currently receives most foreign
direct in-vestment. In view of the high capital outlay
associated with these investments, social peace must have
preference over trade union-free zones and low wages from
an investor’s point of view.
Therefore, it is quite unlikely for unions to encounter
huge resistance against trade union representation of
the employees at the workplace and regulated
(collective) labor relations. New niches of formal
economic activity with good potential for trade union
organizing also arise from the expansion of South
African companies to the rest of the continent. This
has been going on for some years now and, aside from
energy and mining, also concerns domestic market-oriented
sectors (hotels, banks, retail trade,
telecommunications, transport), which are also more
labor-intensive.
Stiff opposition to trade unionism only occur,
where foreign companies are either engaged in
labor-intensive production for export markets, originate
from countries with poor labor relations and harsh
working conditions (such as China, Taiwan, etc.) or
where both factors come together - like in the

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African textile and garment industry, which was set up
in the second half of the 1990s mainly by Asian investors
with a view to exploit unused African export quotas to
the North American market. With the abolition of the quota-
system after the expiry of the international textile agreement
(Multi-Fiber-Agreement) at the end of 2004 and the threat
of relocation of many of the plants, the conditions for the
trade unions in this sector are bound to become even
more difficult. Above all, however, in many countries
trade unions remain an important political force which
has to be taken into account by the political power
holders.
Despite their massive member-ship losses, trade
unions continue to be one of the very few societal
organizations in Africa with a sizeable constituency,
country-wide structures and the potential for mobilizing
members on social or political matters. Moreover, they
are in a position to mobilize international solidarity
campaigns, whenever massive violations of trade union
or human rights occur. It is for these reasons that also
in future trade union mobilization will play an
important political role, time and again, in particular in
situations of political transition, in the struggle against
authoritarian regimes or in campaigns and protests against
the deterioration of living conditions of the broad
population, for example, in the case of drastic increases
of administered prices for basic food stuffs, energy or
transport.
Zambia had a unique and unrivalled model of workers’
participation in Southern Africa. Worker participation,
through works council system was introduced by the

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Kaunda administration under the Industrial Relations Act of
1971.
The councils provided a voice to workers in their
relation with management for mutual benefits, particularly
in so far as health and safety, efficiency of operation and
better working environment are concerned. Works’ councils
were not intended to supplant the union, and as such they
were encouraged in workplaces where there were no unions
or the workforce was less than 100. Throughout the 1970s
and 1980s collective bargaining, through the JICs functioned
side by side of the works’ councils.
But there was an uneasy relationship between works’
councils and trade unions, as the former either dabbled into
issues of collective bargaining, or employers used them to
undermine collective bargaining. Hence works councils
were phased out in 1993, under the Industrial and Labor
Relations Act of that year.
While the collapse of works council paved way for
unobstructed collective bargaining, the latter does not
substitute the former because, unlike the works’ council,
collective bargaining seeks to resolve conflict of interest
issues. Predictably, both management and labor leaders
lamented to this author that the lack of consultation or the
institution for it are mostly responsible for rampant workers’
action, particularly in the private sector.
Tripartite social dialogue was comparatively a recent
development in Zambia, having been instituted under the
Industrial and Labor Relations Act of 1993. The institution
created by this law, the Tripartite Consultation and Labor
Council (TCLC), serves as the national forum for tripartite
dialogue on broad social and economic development issues.
In fact, this institution was created primarily to facilitate

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workers and employers participation in the formulation and
implementation of economic and social policy. However, the
TCLC was involved only in discussions around how to
cushion the consequences arising from job losses and
possible palliatives for workers. In recent years, however,
the TCLC has performed reasonably well, particularly in
dealing with the broader issues that influence the labor
market.
The introduction of market economy and related labor
market reforms has willy-nilly demeaned the enormous
gains in the organizational rights of labor and weakened
employment relations. The reforms highlight a number of
critical challenges in Zambia, and calls for a reorientation of
the roles and strategies of the tripartite partners in the labor
market. This reorientation would help achieve a constructive
engagement among them in the unfolding realities of the
market economy. Four major issues that impacts on the
employment relationship and where strategic responses of
the actors are critically needed are outlined.
The first concerns the phenomenon of casualization or
contingent employment, which is pervasive in the private
sector. As practiced in Zambia, casualization undermines
public policy designed to create desirable flexibility in the
labor market.
It fundamentally alters the processes and goals of
employment relations, as pertains to its negative effect on
employment, union credibility, and the relevance of
collective bargaining. Casualization promotes substandard
employment conditions, job insecurity and frustrates
freedom of association. A reversal of these developments
calls for joint tripartite policy response that meets national

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development objectives while respecting organizational
rights of workers and employers.
The second issue concerns the informalisation of the
labor market in Zambia, and which is equally a threat to the
employment relationship. As shown earlier, structural
adjustment and liberalization have had the disastrous effect
on employment opportunities, and in turn the growth of the
informal economy (ILO, 2002). With about 90 per cent of
the labor force in informal employment, the latter has
invariably swallowed up formal employment! This labor
market reality requires realistic and constructive policy
initiatives that acknowledge the contribution of informal
employment to overall national development and equally
ensure compliance with minimum labor standards (ILO,
2002).
This particular challenge falls disproportionately on
the state in making realistic policy that promote decent work
values and rights in the informal economy. At the same
time, it is evident that definitive organizing strategy for this
huge sector is crucial to the future of trade unions and
employers’ organizations. It appears inescapable for unions
to broaden their membership base to include vulnerable
groups, particularly casual workers and those in the informal
economy. In the same context, the employers’ associations
need to organize the small and medium enterprises, and
promote favorable policy relevant to these groups, such as
issues of market access, productivity improvement and
compliance with international labor standards.
The third is the critical role of joint action through
constructive bipartite consultative mechanisms at the
industry and enterprise levels, and tripartite cooperation at
the national level. The need for effective dialogue at the

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various levels arises from the usefulness of fostering labor-
management cooperation towards enterprise performance,
productivity and labor peace. At the national level, the
challenge revolves around ensuring participation of workers
and employers in macroeconomic policy making in
advancing social and economic development.
However, if tripartite cooperation is to be constructive
and effectively contribute to labor market governance, a
structural reform that brings on board senior representatives
of key government departments, such as finance, economic
development, trade and industry, as regular members of the
TCLC is inevitable. Indeed, the classification in 2005 of the
labor ministry as an “economic” department of government
represents a major public policy initiative in support of this
proposition.
The fourth issue is overcoming the noticeable
shortcoming among the tripartite partners in dealing with the
policy incoherence in employment relations. The wavering
posture of the public authority in giving unequivocal support
for the enforcement of existing labor standards, calls for a
clearly articulated labor administration policy that supports
the implementation of the newly introduced national labor
policy in a manner that promotes employment relations. This
is particularly essential in redressing the shortcomings in
labor inspection services so as to remove the critical gaps in
employment relations practice. Similarly, the indifference of
employers towards collective employment relations requires
internal reforms of the ZFE in a manner that it is able to
demonstrate to investors the contribution of good labor
relations to enterprise performance and competitiveness.
Employment relations in Zambia have undergone
dramatic transformations during the past decades. The

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transition from centrally planned economy created
considerable acrimony between the government and labor,
even though the overall thrust of public policy
acknowledges the long-term value of good employment
relations. However, the emerging labor market has
introduced flexible employment policies and employers
whose interest in collective employment relations is
generally shaky. A combination of these developments
constitutes challenges for each of the tripartite partners in
employment relations. Specific strategic initiatives among
them are needed in order to upscale the fundamental rights
at work, strengthen the employment relationship and assure
its contribution to decent work and national development
objectives.
The amended labor laws do not adequately protect
workers from violations of their rights from employers. One
of the reasons for amending the Laws was to make them
conform to the dictates of a liberal system. This has given
employers, especially new investors, a leverage to violate
workers’ rights at will. Some of the new employers have
taken advantage of loopholes in the labor laws by running
away from the obligations that go with long-term
employment by using casual labors. And because the law no
longer makes it an obligation for employers to recognize
trade unions, there has been growing anti-union tendencies
among new investors, some of whom are on record of
abandoning workers without paying them terminal benefits
on repatriation or closure (FES, 2012).
The current labor laws are also weak on the
engagement of expatriate staff by new investors and the
differences between their incomes and those of local staff.
Most new investors have taken advantage of the situation by

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recruiting their nationals in management positions and
paying them heftily, compared to local experts of similar
qualifications and experience.
The representation of workers’ interests often puts the
labor movement in conflict with other political and
economic groups who are competing for a larger share of the
national pie and who see the labor movement, representing
people at work and relatively well-off, as competitors with
the very poor and destitute and the unemployed. On the
other hand, the representation of workers' rights is usually a
force which allies the labor movement with political forces
trying to achieve political and social changes and who value
the additional pressure the labor movement can bring.
The rapidly changing labor market environment has
brought a number of challenges to the labor movement. The
liberalization of the economy coupled with privatization
resulted in a substantial decline in trade union membership.
This weakened the labor movement’s strength and financial
capacity as it draws most of its income from membership
subscriptions. The lack of sufficient resources limited or
reduced the number of services that trade unions are capable
of providing to the general membership. In the same vein,
very few unions have been in a position to attract and retain
well-qualified personnel, who can assist in the formulation
of viable responses to policy issues. The political authority
is usually overloaded with a lot of work and thus don’t find
time to draft union positions and policies. Therefore very
few unions has policies on issues that affect their members
such as labor policies, HIV/AIDS, Social security etc.
Due to lack of sufficient resources also, small trade
unions like the United House and Domestic Workers’ Union
of Zambia (UHDWUZ), Airways and Allied Workers Union

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of Zambia (AAWUZA), Bankers Union of Zambia (BUZ)
etc. have difficulties to afford office space or engage full-
time technocrats. This makes it even more difficult to
contact these unions as they rely on individual officials’
phones and workplace addresses. They are not just there
sometimes. It is also difficult for some of the unions to
regularly call for constitutional meetings as they do not have
the resources to do so. Others delay the holding of elections
and are only bailed out by grants from the federations.
The birth of splinter unions has also weakened trade
union solidarity as they sometimes make conflicting
demands or statements. Due to this fragmentation, calls for
industrial action sometimes do not yield favorable results as
not all members will participate because they belong to
different trade union organisation. Attempts to amalgamate
the fragmented small unions, especially those in the same
industry, have not been fruitful as some trade union leaders
are scared of losing positions. They would rather struggle as
small entities. This is personalization of organizations.
The smaller unions have thus no capacity to deliver
services other than just representing workers at work places
Glowing anti-trade union tendencies and divide-and-rule
tactics by employers have also resulted in the weakening of
trade unions as some employers promise those workers who
do not join trade unions good conditions of service. As a
result, some do not see the reason for being unionized. Then
there are those that just enjoy being free-riders or benefiting
from efforts of their colleagues without being trade union
members.
The gender gap in trade union membership and
leadership is another great challenge that unions need to
address. Statistics show that women are underrepresented in

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trade union structures. Though efforts to address this
problem (like establishment of Women’s Committees) have
been put in place, there is still need to address the gender
problem through affirmative or deliberate action of co-
opting women into the trade union leadership structure.
Prospects
Despite the ever-mounting challenges as a result of
globalization and accompanying neo-liberal policies that
trade unions have to put up with, they still have a vital role
to play on the labor market. There is however need to
reposition themselves if they have to score some success.
The prospects for trade union effective representation
are bright with the current review of labor legislation, which
is going on through wide consultations with stakeholders. It
is only hoped that stakeholders’ inputs will be taken
seriously and adopted so that there could be strong labor
laws. On the other hand, the restructuring of the Ministry of
Labor, if followed by improved funding will contribute to
the strengthening of the institutional and legal enforcement
framework of the labor market. It is likely that these will
contribute to the reduction in the number of violations of
workers’ rights and anti-trade union tendencies. However,
these measures alone will not guarantee trade unions a
smooth ride, especially if they don’t undertake internal steps
to keep up with the challenges.
These should include:
- Capacity building
Trade unions need to strengthen further their capacity
to understand and undertake long-term social economic
policy response measures.
- Intensive Recruitment and Organizing

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 The unionization density is still low for the formal
sector. There is therefore great need for trade unions to reach
the un-reached workers by allocating a lot of resources to
recruitment and organizing of new members. This will not
only help build their numbers but their financial capacity
also.
- Democratization of Trade Union Structures and Prudent
Management of Resources
There is need for trade unions to increase the wide
participation of their members in the activities in order to
build wide ownership of their organizations. The available
resources should be managed prudently in order to gain the
confidence of the general membership and cooperating
partners.

- Amalgamation / Mergers of Trade Unions

In order to gain the lost strength, small unions should
be encouraged to merge in order to come up with viable
unions which can counteract employers’ coercion.

- Networking / Unity of Purpose

Trade unions need to work together by networking and
sharing of experiences on how they are tackling their
difficulties. There is great need for rival unions to work
together in the fight against victimization and for improved
working conditions of service.
The labor movement in Zambia has bright prospects
for the future, they only need to be focused in their work and
ensure that they do not compromise their autonomy.

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 It is generally argued that unions increase the standard
of living for everyone; they set the standard of living. When
union wages increase, so does the standard of living, which
in turn increases wages in non-union workplaces. Unions
have kept the middle class afloat. When union jobs decrease,
so does the middle class. When the middle class prospers so
does the economy. Therefore, unions are beneficial to the
economy. Unions are beneficial to both the economy and to
the workers that fuel it. According to U.S. Census Bureau
data, the middle class' share of aggregate income is now at
its lowest point since 1967 (the first year of Census Bureau
data collection). Similarly, the Union Membership Rate is
now at its lowest point since the same year. In other words,
as union membership rates decrease, middle class incomes
shrink. It is believed by union advocates that a healthy
middle class income is important to the economy. This is so
because unions’ help to guarantee that workers are paid fair
wages, receive the training that helps them do their jobs
well, and are considered in the corporate decision-making
process, (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014).
Wage setting in Zambia is conducted largely through
the process of collective bargaining under the auspices of the
Industrial and Labor Relations Act. Every employer
employing not less than twenty five (25) employees and the
trade union to which his employees belong are required to
enter into a recognition agreement. Under this agreement,
the employer does not simply acknowledge the existence of
such trade union, but more importantly undertakes to accept
the Union as a bargaining partner.
The agreement is a pre-requisite for regulating the
collective relationship of the employer and the trade union.
Similar relationships are required to be established between

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the employer’s organizations and the trade unions as may
exist.
Following the establishment of plural trade unionism
in 1997 and the emergence of competing trade unions, the
question of criteria for recognition has been topical and has
been discussed at various tripartite fora. The law has so far
not given guidance on the matter leading to difficulties in
certain sectors. In many cases however the principle of
“most representative” has been the standard.
Collective bargaining as a means of establishing
minimum wages and conditions of employment has
permeated the greater part of the workplace including the
public service arising from tremendous growth in the
institutions of industrial relations namely trade unions and
employer’s organizations. It can be safety estimated that
over 50% of the workforces in the formal sector are covered
or affected by collective bargaining processes either directly
or indirectly.
Collective bargaining takes place at both enterprise
and industry levels. In the recent past however industry level
bargaining has tended to be shunned in favor of enterprise
level bargaining which is considered more realistic as it
tends to take full account of enterprise capacity. Industrial
bargaining has been abandoned in the motor trade, banks
and other financial institutions during the last decade.
Generally the Government does not interfere in the
contents of collective agreements. The major determinant is
capacity of the employer and negotiating skills of the Union.
Provided an agreement is not contrary to any written law,
the Minister will direct the registration of the agreement.
Upon registration by the Labor Commissioner a collective
agreement assumes legal effect and is binding on the parties.

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 In spite of the bias for collective bargaining enshrined
in the Act, it is recognized that State intervention in the
regulation of wages and other conditions of employment is
necessary and inevitable in those areas or sectors where
collective bargaining is not possible or is ineffective. The
State still has residual power to determine minimum wages
and other conditions of employment. This power may be
exercised only in circumstances where collective bargaining
is not possible or effective. It should be noted that there is a
requirement that in exercising the power, the Minister must
consult and involve the social partners.
The importance of trade unionism in a country cannot
be overstated; the unions play a pivotal role in sensitizing
workers on their rights. Right to strike is provided under the
constitution (Art. 65.2) and is regulated under the Industrial
and Labor Relations Act (Art. 5, 101 and many others). The
long list of essential services and a long series of procedural
requirements actually frustrate the right to strike.
In accordance with the Zambian Constitution, the
worker has the right to go on a lawful strike. The Industrial
and Labor Relations Act defines strike as the cessation of
work or withdrawal of labor contrary to the terms and
conditions of a contract by a body of persons employed in
any undertaking acting in combination; or a concerted
refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any
number of persons who are so employed to continue to work
or provide their labor.
Peaceful strike is allowed only after all the methods of
dispute resolution fail. Majority members of union must
approve strike by voting in favor of strike, which may
commence ten days following the decision to do so and may

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continue for an indefinite period during which the dispute
remains unresolved.
Workers are prohibited from participating in a strike
that has not been authorized by a strike ballot taken in the
manner provided by the constitution of a trade union under
this Act; or it is not in contemplation or furtherance of a
collective dispute to which the employee or trade union is a
party. Otherwise the person is liable to a fine up to one
thousand penalty units in case of a body corporate and a fine
up to four hundred penalty units in all other cases.
Employers also have the right to lockout workers. This right
is subject to the same rules and restrictions as the right to
strike (FES, 2012.
Therefore, strikes and indeed lockouts are both
recognized as legitimate actions that may be undertaken by
workers or employers in furtherance of their dispute.
However, such actions become lawful only if they are
resorted to after due process and only if they do not involve
“essential services” as previously defined. It is important to
note that the right to strike is strictly limited to parties to the
dispute.
This means that sympathy strikes over political
matters are not legitimate under the law. It is also important
to note that no strike may take place after the Industrial
Relations Court has given a decision.
Certain protective provisions have been incorporated
in the Industrial Relations Act. These include the right of an
employee not to do work normally done by an employee
who is lawfully on strike or who is locked out, unless such
work constitutes an essential service, and where a lawful
strike or lockout, takes place, the existing recognition and
collective agreement, if any, between the parties may not be

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deemed to have been breached by reason only of such action
or the contract of employment of each employee involved
in the strike or lockout may not be deemed to have been
breached only by such action.
In spite of the legal limitations on the right to strike,
large scale strikes and many spontaneous work stoppages of
short duration at enterprise level have nevertheless occurred
designed to draw attention to poor working conditions and
set in motion negotiations or conciliation.
The impact of neo-liberal policies in Zambia,
principally, policies of privatization and liberalization, had
brought changes in the job tenure in both the public and
private sectors. The failed privatization process not only
pushed thousands of former miners and other employees
into the informal economy, but it also deprived the labor
movement of many of its members, as union membership
ceases three months after retrenchment or retirement.
In order to support its former members and the
informal sector operators at large, ZCTU (Zambia Congress
of Trade Unions) changed its constitution to allow
representations of ISOs (Informal Sector Operator’s) to
become associated members to Congress (ZCTU
Constitution: p.14). On top of this effort to organize the
informal economy, ZCTU started an employment promotion
programme called CISEP (Concept for Informal
Employment Promotion), which aims at uplifting the
entrepreneurial and technical skills of retrenches, retirees
and other micro-entrepreneurs.
The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions and the
Mineworkers Union of Zambia have been actively involved
since 1998 in the establishment of CISEP, in conjunction
with the Technical Education, Vocational and

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Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) and the
GTZ/STEP-IN - project. CISEP is a nationwide approach
that works as a blueprint ("franchise") for training providers
from different backgrounds, like community centers,
vocational training schools, churches or Trade Unions.
CISEP Centers under their so-called "parent organizations"
like MUZ and ZCTU provide business information, needs
assessment, short-term technical and business management
courses. Trade unions in Zambia have been actively
involved in employment creation activities and this benefits
both the society and the economy.
Further, according to Lance Sharkey (1961), in a study
done by economists Klaus Wälde and Alejandro Donado,
they argued that unions indeed can provide valuable services
that increase economic activity and social well-being. In
fact, when it comes to occupational health and safety
standards, neither the government nor a laissez-faire
economic system have the means or the incentives to assure
optimal production and welfare. Unions can fill this gap and
can increase output and welfare.
According to the Hazard Magazine (1997), trade union
representatives and officials have exposed new and
underestimated hazards and diseases, and have often been
years ahead of medical thought. It was unions and health and
safety campaigners, not experts or the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) that correctly predicted the deadly
epidemic of asbestos-related diseases now affecting
construction and maintenance workers and the public.
It was UNISON legal action that established
employers were liable for the breakdowns, ill-health and
even suicides caused by workplace bullying, over-work and
stress. Safety campaigns have been a constant feature of

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union work. T&G, a Vietnamese company fought for and
won national controls on the highly toxic Vietnam defoliant
and local authority herbicide 2,4,5-T. And also, in the early
1980s, print union GPMU won bans on TDI, a chemical still
in industrial use today and which poses a serious asthma
risk, (ibid). This ultimately increases a company’s output in
that workers will be more productive and healthy, as well as
the workers welfare.
On the other hand, trade unions have also been argued
to have some cons or disadvantages in a state. Firstly, it has
been argued that union contracts make it difficult for
companies to make necessary adjustments when business
conditions change, such as laying off workers or cutting
hours when revenues fall. For example the issue with
Konkola Copper Mine (KCM). Their decision to lay off
1,500 workers did not go well with various stakeholders.
Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) promoted the
idea that the government should take over the running of the
mining company to safeguard the jobs of the workers.
According to KCM, the move was as a result of them not
being able to afford the number of workers they had, which
would lead to little profits hence defeating one of the main
purposes of the company, which is profit making. (Lusaka
Times, 2013). And this can further lead to a decrease in the
direct foreign investment a country attracts, resulting to less
government revenue.
Furthermore, everyone knows that unions try to raise
their member’s wages. But far fewer people understand how
they try to do it. Unions cannot simply demand that
companies hire their members for above-market wages.
Employers would raise their eyebrows and simply say no.

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 To raise their members pay, unions must control the
supply of jobs in a company or an industry. Unions must
prevent employers from hiring anyone without their
permission. If they can do this, they can expect the laws of
supply and demand to work in their favor. Holding down
employment drives up union members’ wages. In other
words, it is argued that successful unions are job cartels.
(James Sherk 2012).
Trade unions in many African countries played a
muscular and seminal role in the late 1980s and early 1990s
in mobilizing the mass protests and strikes that led to the
overthrow of old authoritarian regimes and ushered in
democratic transitions. In some other countries the unions’
intermittent strike movements and protests were critical in
creating, over time, political “space” in which other social
and political groups could mount protests and political
coalitions. These crystallized in political liberalization and
democratization. Moreover, in the post transition period,
trade unions have often continued to play leading roles in
public and political life in ways crucial to the vitality of
democracy in these countries. These democratic unions are
responsive to their members who have generally not been
beneficiaries of the market-oriented policies of the successor
governments. These have invariably been in thrall and
bondage to the zealous market advocacies and resource
blackmails of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the
World Bank, and foreign donor countries. Consequently,
labor protests and strikes have often continued, being called
by workers whose living standards and organizing rights
have suffered under the democratic regimes they were
crucial in creating.

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 Most trade unions in the world exist for historical and
ideological reasons of advancing the cause of workers and
the society at large. They engage the working social and
economic order and may either accept the existing economic
order or work within that order to achieve a favorable set of
economic terms and employment conditions, or they may
seek to overthrow the existing political and economic
system and replace it with another. In Africa, trade unions
emerged as a response to the despotic capitalist colonial
order. The post-independence embrace of the enclave
economies coupled with the implementation of Structural
Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in most African countries
since the 1980s created a labor market that is characterized
by exclusion in terms of low wages, poverty and inequality a
state of affairs the continues even as late as the first decade
of the 21st century.

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 CHAPTER EIGHT

WORKERS’ EDUCATION

The Role of Unions in Workers Education

Workers' education describes programmes of adult learning

associated with, or originated from, trade unions, co-
operative movements and political parties associated with
organized labor or social movements. The trade union
movement needs upright people with strong critical
faculties. Only then will practice have a liberating content.
Trade union training must generate an attitude of ethical
commitment, given the demanding task of achieving the
common good. This also implies promoting political
awareness among workers, so that they are in a position to
judge and question historical contexts and shackling
structures.
The fundamental objectives of workers education are
the improvement of workers’ individual and group
competencies and advancement of their social, economic
and cultural interests, so that they can become current, wise
and responsible citizens able to play a part in the union as
well as a free society and to also ensure for themselves a

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status of dignity and respect equal to those of their groups or
individuals.
Workers are not commodities to be bought and sold
like goods on the global labor market, but are human beings
with social, economic and political aspirations for their lives
at work, at home and in society. Trade unions have for a
time immemorial being a conduit of workers education; they
have endeavored to provide education on political, social
and other subjects which affects the workers. Nonetheless,
the plight of workers appears to be at the whims and
caprices of politicians and employers, exploitation of labor
often go unquestioned. Workers’ education is supposed to
develop union consciousness among workers, to build
common goals and to share experiences. Workers’ education
is one of the ambits of adult education programs geared
towards empowerment. Apart from being an implement for
the unions, workers’ education is also the laboratory in
which activists cook up new ideas for mobilizing workers,
so as to face the new problems that they encounter in the
workplace or which are of more general concern to workers.
In Zambia prior to 1964, the trade union movement
established itself as a powerful and independent force in the
industrial sector. The movement was heavily involved in
political activity and education directed towards the goal of
independence. It was also involved in creating awareness
among workers of the objectives, benefits and organization
of trade unions. After Independence the trade unions
organized on a national basis and formed the Zambia
Congress of Trade Unions which established a Department
of Workers' Education in 1968 at its Headquarters in Kitwe.
The Department, together with the individual unions, began
to develop a more systematic and structured educational

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programme for unionists at all levels. One of the objectives
was to initiate, plan, co-ordinate and implement ZCTU
programmes and also assisting National Unions and
specialized Workers Bodies to develop their Workers'
Education activities and to train workers in political, social
and economic subjects.
Worker’s education has always been at the core of union
action, these educational works are sometimes termed as
workers’ education. Workers' education is not a unified
concept: it has many forms, contents, objectives and its
focus changes through time. It can cover basic literacy
education, education for unions' representatives, education
for changes in society, for example, education on
globalization, education for social justice, gender education
and education for action such as empowerment, organizing
and many more.
The labor movement in Zambia has not been spared
from the global challenges facing trade unions. For example,
labor exploitation and casualization of labor have become a
norm. In the last few decades under globalization, the very
foundations of trade unions have been undermined and that
they have had to adapt to neo-liberalism to such an extent
that they can no longer play a role as agents of social
change. Thus, radical adult educators need to recognize the
potential for social change in new emerging movements
such as those of the indigenous, the landless, the homeless
and the unemployed, and to the global justice movement
particularly in the global South.
In general, workers' education can be understood as
having two distinct branches: belonging either to the
technical/professional school or to the consciousness-
raising/activist school. From the consciousness raising

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perspective, the desired outcome of workers' education is
measured by the extent to which workers and their allies
unites by using education to bring about changes in the
workplace and in the wider social context. Workers'
education should develop critical awareness and social
action, as opposed to, the personal development and job
skills focus of human resources development. The
educational activities of workers, when defined by their
interests, go beyond the acquiring of job skills or managing
a union. Educational activities must be an integral part of
social action.
It is my considered view that workers education is that
sector of adult education which caters for adults in their
capacity as workers and especially as members of workers
organizations. Its immediate aims are usually to increase the
ability of workers to assume more responsibilities in their
own organizations, their work places and in local and
national decision making bodies. Workers education is
intended to educate the workers on the contract between
employers and employees, particularly the various laws that
establishes the relationship of work.
Internationally, worker education has comprised
numerous strands. Historically, these have clustered around
two dominant approaches: a radical, 'transformative'
approach to which emphasizes the building of class
consciousness and can be located in a long-standing radical
or socialist tradition, and an alternative instrumental
approach which can be located within a reformist tradition
of trade unionism and which prioritizes training for
organization building and to facilitate the conduct of union
business.

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 Trade unions were established by workers to represent,
protect and defend their collective social and economic
interests. However, given the complex dimensions that these
interests have assumed due to global economic and socio-
political environments, the case for continual relevant and
strengthened learning processes for personal and collective
development has become an unrelenting imperative within
the labor movement. The labor movement should not only
represent the interests of workers, it should also value
education as a means to strengthen workers' capacities and
empower them to transform society.
There are three areas of core union education that is:
preparing and training lay members to play an active role in
the union; educating activists and members about union
policy and changes in the union environment; and
developing union consciousness, building common goals,
sharing, campaigning and organizing experience. Workers’
education has a social purpose which is to promote and
develop the union presence and purposes, so as to advance
the union collectively. However, workers' education is not
only about advancing the union collectively; it can also be
about developing a critical political consciousness for
fundamental changes in the lives of workers and in society
at large.
Workers' education needs to be seen as a dimension of
workers' culture and politics, and that there are therefore
notorious difficulties in delineating the boundaries of worker
education. Whereas labor schools are those spaces that
workers themselves, their leaders or sympathetic
pedagogues open up for reflection on the meaning of their
work and culture, schools of labor are the socially organized

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workplaces where important technical, social, political and
ideological experiential learning occurs.
Some people refer to workers' education as the two
hours session with workers while others refer to it as the
three days’ workshop. Workers' education is not only a
programme where workers come to attend or participate.
The scope of workers' education is not only the range of
issues and topics that are relevant. It needs to take on board
the issue of access and sustaining participation and
involvement, which leads to addressing the issues affecting
workers’ lives at the workplace, in the home and
community. Workers' education starts with identifying the
interests of workers and working out ways to get access to
them.
Workers’ education is a process of political literacy
where both educator and student must remove themselves
from their traditional roles, to free the process of education
from its domesticating tendencies. Education for
domestication is an act of transferring ‘knowledge,’ whereas
education for freedom is an act of knowledge and a process
of transforming action that should be exercised on reality.
The fundamental objective of education is the
transformation of people from the objects of history to the
subjects of history. The process of education does not occur
devoid of societal influences and constraints.
In order to better understand the comprehensive
underpinnings of workers’ education, both politically and
methodologically, it is important, even if only briefly, to
revisit the basic pedagogical concepts developed by Paulo
Freire (1970). In a broad sense, Freire’s pedagogical
concerns were a response to elite domination. He saw the
transformative role of education as a process for building

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critical consciousness among politically disenfranchised
sectors of the population. He drew extensively on the notion
of education as a dialectical relationship where the
interrelations between subjective and objective
consciousness are central conditions for social change. For
Freire, education was a political-pedagogical process where
individual and collective critical awareness were essential
for social transformations, and where non-elites increasingly
expanded their political power.
Some objectives of workers education are: making a
responsibly committed and disciplined operative;
understanding the basic economic and technical aspects of
the industry and plant where he is employed so that he can
take an intelligent interest in its affairs; making him aware
of his rights and obligations; understanding the organization
and functioning of the union as well as develop qualities of
leadership, loyalty and devotion towards trade and union
work; living a clean and healthy life based on firm ethical
foundations ; and being responsible and alert citizen.
If the objective of a workers’ educational experiment
were to give the worker greater power of enjoyment here
and now; or to develop his ability to think fundamentally on
social problems; or to help him to function more effectively
as a citizen in the solution of social problems; or to equip
him to fight effectively for immediate improvement in the
conditions of labor: to train him as a leader in the trade
union movement; to interpret to him his place in the scheme
of things; to give impetus to his demand for a new order of
society; to develop his sense of loyalty to his economic
organization-if the aim were any one of these things, that
aim would be a legitimate aim of workers’ education.

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 Workers’ education aims at helping workers to
understand their problems and take actions to solve them. It
also helps workers to become positive thinkers and
contented citizens. Through workers’ education the orderly
development of workers in their union is ensured. It can
prevent or stem any crisis in industrial relation, with it,
general standard of living of workers can be raised. It
enhances workers skills, knowledge and techniques; hence
high productivity is ascertained. Workers’ education
provides workers the opportunities to acquire new skills
relevant to their day-to-day operations and also to renew out
dated and irrelevant skills. With those skills workers will
become more proficient, efficient and effective in carrying
out their official duties. In addition, workers’ education aims
at producing an educated, informed, professional and self-
reliant group of workers whose eyes are opened and always
at alert to resist any form of oppression.
An essential element of workers' education is
collective learning in which the learners need to identify
themselves as members of the labor-selling class, not simply
as individuals. This necessarily requires dialectic pedagogy,
in that workers are learning to improve their situation
relative to the owners of capital, although it does not mean
that all collective learning is of a consciousness-raising type.
Indeed, many unions have relied on the collective-learning
model but have used it to engage in technically based
education. On one hand, workers’ education may represent a
successful strategy for some unions and workers worried
about how a lack of skills may make their workplaces less
competitive and therefore lead to job losses, for others, such
union-initiated technical education raises concerns because
its content often differs little from that of company-initiated

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training designed to improve workers' stock of human
capital such as skills and specific work-related knowledge.
Therefore many scholars see workers' education as
separate from the apolitical, individualized, functionalist
approach that is central to human resource development.
This non-workers’ education constitutes much of
mainstream adult education or the conservative union-run
workshops on leadership, collective bargaining, and health
and safety. The aim of workers' education, from this
perspective is to free the learner from being simply a cog in
a system. In such a model, the role of the professional
educator is quite different from that under the human-capital
model, with the educator serving not as the powerful
purveyor of knowledge but as another educational tool of the
student who seeks a purposeful education.
With the form, content, and definition of workers'
education varying so widely, workers' education can broadly
be defined as that sector of adult education which caters for
adults in their capacity as workers and especially as
members of workers' organizations. Within such a broad
definition, he identifies five major components, which
provide: basic general skills; role skills for union and
workers' organization activity; economic, social, and
political background studies; technical and vocational
training; and cultural, scientific, and general education. This
inclusive definition covers all organizations that function to
educate working adults, be they trade unions, workers'
educational associations, cooperatives, rural workers
association, churches, labor colleges, or the accredited,
permanent universities.
In order to establish itself clearly as one of the most
influential services that unions provide to their members,

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workers’ education should be properly designed and
implemented. In this regard, the scope of workers’ education
has always been unique and its approach different from any
other form of adult education. Its scope and content are
designed to create and also raise awareness among union
members, activists and leaders as well as providing them
with skills to meet the difficult challenges of their
workplaces and organizations. Increasingly, workers’
education is organized with the aim of educating target
groups and making them supportive to their organizations
and better performing. It is in this context that trade unions
have a traditional obligation to ensure that their members are
satisfied with the education offered.
Most labor union members learn about the union while
on the job, often referred to as informal or incidental
learning. They probably will learn more and become most
active during negotiations, grievances and disputes, but they
also learn from union publications and communications,
from attending meetings, conferences and conventions, and
from the union’s educational programmes. Although labor
education only caters to a small number of members in any
one year it is designed to benefit a larger number of
members because the course participants are expected to
share the learning gained with other union members. Labor
education has a social purpose – to promote and develop the
union presence and purposes, so as to advance the union
collectively.
The most common form of work activity engaged in
by union members are meetings. Worker representatives
also participate in meetings with management and in
bargaining forums with employer groupings. The primary
purpose of union meetings is to take collective decisions

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rather than to carry out education; nevertheless meetings are
educational in that they facilitate information-sharing
amongst members, help to develop common perspectives,
and contribute to the renewal of leadership capacity at a time
when worker leaders are constantly being siphoned off into
positions of greater responsibility within the union or,
increasingly, into management or government.
How can an interest in workers’ education be
awakened? What is the best way of starting a class? How is
a class taught? What methods hold interest? There is no cut
and dried method that could be laid down in answer to these
questions. The problem is one of dealing with human beings.
Even if there were definite methods it would be
presumptuous on our part to suggest them as the best
possible. Up to the present writing there has been little
information gathered and the experiences have been based
upon a short period of time. It may not be amiss, however, to
present some of the processes and plans that have been used
successfully in organizing workers’ classes in typical
industrial centers in this country. The suggestions are made
without any sense of finality.
The way a group of grown persons best educate each
other is in the method used by Socrates and his friends. It is
the way of endless discussion centering on one subject. It is
almost the hardest work in the world. The results are
sometimes amazing. A grown man discovers he is beginning
to grow again. Endless discussion about one subject cannot
maintain itself on words. It dies away unless it feeds on
knowledge and finally interpretation. It reaches out for facts
and then for the meaning of them. In modern terms, this
Socratic Method means a class of from five to twenty-five,
who read books, listen to talks, and ask questions. They take

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to themselves a like-minded teacher, who is a good fellow,
and together they work regularly and hard. This is the heart
of workers’ education-the class financed on trade union
money, the teacher a comrade, the method discussion, the
subject the social sciences, the aim an understanding of life
and the remolding of the scheme of things. Where that
dream of a better world is absent, adult workers’ education
will fade away in the loneliness and rigor of the effort.
Action is also an important aspect of the learning
process; that is, real learning is demonstrated by the
participant’s capacity to translate their intellectual
understanding into concrete action. A particularly important
aspect of the program’s methodological structure is that the
communication and debate of ideas at the center of the
learning process is not limited to speech and writing.
Knowledge can be ascertained through various mediums:
art, music, dance and cinema; even physical education is
considered a form of communication.
A critical aspect of workers’ educational structure is
the use of pedagogical evaluations as permanent aspects of
the learning process. Continuous evaluations are an
important part of building a body of knowledge for both
students and educators. Evaluations allow all those involved
in the process to continuously measure the effectiveness of
the program, recognize problems, and make changes to
modules already in progress. Consequently, much like the
program’s methodological structure, systemic and
continuous evaluations are an intricate aspect of the learning
process that allows educators and students alike to reach
their defined goals. The evaluation process is based on the
comparative examination of learning through the lens of the
program’s objectives. It is a critical and self-critical process

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between students and educators measuring individual and
collective participation in the program. In the evaluation
process students and educator critically examine course
content and delivery as well as a self-critical analysis of the
participants. Individual intellectual developments, as well as
general capacities of students collectively are the parameters
used to determine success.
Methods in workers’ education depend on objectives.
If the objective is to train leaders and to give the ambitious
minority of the rank and file an intensive education, then the
method will be that of the small class and hard work.
Education for these groups is for those only who feel a
desire, and have some sense of the direction they wish to
travel. The experiment will begin with three or four in the
class, and with meager funds. If correctly grounded, it will
grow slowly. Only at the end of some years will the
experiment show results large enough to attract outside
attention and public ceremonies.
No short cuts and no brass bands can lead to workers’
education of this intensive kind. This education is self-
education. It is not by chance and happy blunder that
workers’ education rediscovered the ancient and correct
method of teaching-the Socratic quiz, the question-and
answers discussion. The workers recaptured this method
through necessity. The miner and railway man, adult and
having knowledge of life, would not submit to the autocracy
of orthodox teachers. A grown man or woman will not sit
silently each week for several years while a lecturer or an
orator holds the platform.
Education objectives cannot be achieved anyhow; it
depends on the methodologies utilized. Therefore, given that
among the objectives of adult education, is the need to rise

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critical consciousness among workers, educators should use
appropriate methods. Critical consciousness is not just
knowledge, but more importantly, the way in which
knowledge is achieved and the subsequent action it elicits.
To achieve critical consciousness of the facts, it is necessary
to be the owner of one’s own labor and labor constitutes part
of the human person. A human being can neither be sold nor
can he sell himself. Therefore, to achieve critical
consciousness calls for going a step beyond the deception of
palliative solutions. It requires engaging in authentic
transformation of reality in order, by humanizing that
reality, to humanize men.
An essential aspect of Freire’s political-pedagogical
approach, focused on the role of the learner and a classroom
that acted as an extension of the broader socio-political
process underway. In this process, learning is not devoid of
what is occurring in society, rather it requires a deep
understanding of the context in which both learner and
educator live and work. He argued that education begins by
initiating a dialogue between learners and educators where
they talk to each other rather than at each other. As a result
of this dialogue, social location, conflict, problems, and the
life experiences of learners and educators are all important
aspects to learning.
The majority of programmes for workers’ activities
deal with specific subject areas. They make use of a training
methodology throughout the course based on active learning
methods. This participant-centered approach encourages the
full engagement of each course member in programme
activities, validates trade union experiences brought by trade
unionists and assists the trainers in delivering the technical
component of the course. Courses begin by drawing on the

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experience, skills, knowledge, and attitudes of participants.
A wide variety of teaching methods are used in the
programme, such as role playing and case studies. For the
exercises, the participants are usually divided into small
groups, except in the case of the final work plans prepared
by each participant for his/her own organization. Reports
presented in plenary sessions, as well as further comments
and advice from the trainers, are recorded and included in
the training packages provided to participants at the end of
the course.
Learning in workers education occurs through a
mutual participation between the learners and the teachers.
We simply cannot go to the workers - urban or peasant - in
the banking style, to give them 'knowledge' or to impose
upon them the model of the good woman or man contained
in a programme whose content we have ourselves organized.
Many political and educational plans have failed because
their authors designed them according to their own personal
views of reality, never once taking into account except as
mere objects of their action the woman/man-in-a-situation
towards which their programme was ostensibly directed. By
the concept of banking style, Freire means that the
teacher/group leader deposits imposes predetermined
information which is fed into the object, the members of the
group.
Dialogue means that the relationship between group
leader and group members is horizontal. The roles of leader
and group member are interchangeable, and the leader learns
from group members as well as group members from the
leader. They relate to each other as subjects as opposed to
the authoritarian method of learning where the relationship
of group leader to member is clearly vertical. With the

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problem posing / solving method leader and group member
are in dialogue with each other: it is an encounter on an
equal basis. The main goal of the encounter is to discover
reality together, to un-mesh the false myths with which we
have all been brought up. This joint enquiry by means of
dialogue into the experience of our lives is also an exchange
of information between group leader and group members,
teacher and students.
Dialogue is an intricate part of learning; it is a measure
of critical consciousness. The process of social
transformation occurs when learners increasingly gain
greater understanding of their role in the world around them
through the intersection of the subjective and objective
conditions of their situation in society. Education is a
continuous process of building consciousness that links
knowledge to the broader struggle for political freedom. For
man this process of orientation in the world can be
understood neither as a purely subjective event, nor as an
objective or mechanistic one, but only as an event in which
subjectivity and objectivity are united. Orientation in the
world so understood, places the purposes of action at the
level of critical perception of reality.
Workers’ education offers teachers and programs in
the literacy field a perspective, methodology and content
aimed at education for liberation. Valuing the experience of
adult students and developing student/teacher consciousness
are essential. Classes should be connected with communities
and real social issues facing student's and teacher's lives.
Adult students and teachers need to become working class
intellectuals engaged in transforming society to meet their
needs and the needs of the future. Without any doubt,
independent student voice, leadership and organization

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needs to be encouraged and nurtured in an educational
process that critiques and changes social conditions and
relationships within adult education programs.
Education involving workers can be divided into three
categories. The first category is union education, which is
educational activity conducted by unions for their purposes.
It covers functional education which refers to training
members in the operations of their unions and subject
education which takes general subjects such as economics
and applies them to union issues such as fair globalization or
enterprise analysis. The second category is workers’
education, which refers to programmes aimed at the
educational attainment of working people. It involves
programmes related to literacy, numeracy, learning a second
language and other general education activities. The third
category is labor studies, which involves the open, impartial
and critical study of labor in society, as practiced by
universities. The term “labor education” is often used to
refer to union education and to labor studies when practiced
by union or university-based educators on the behalf of
unions. Labor education is a branch of adult education and
could benefit from innovations in the field of union
education and labor studies.
There is an urgent need to build a movement for
workers’ education to enable democratic participation in the
economy and society. This dramatic expansion of adult
education and literacy should be aimed at the development
of critical consciousness and civic participation of workers.
Adult students and potential students who are aware of the
world and actively involved can transform their
communities and society. Workers’ education teachers and
programs can serve the liberation of adult students or they

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can be society's gatekeepers, to control and domesticate
them. This gatekeeping is manifested in the unequal
treatment based on race, gender and nationality, but its
foundation rests on the class relationships in this society.
Education is tied to work through turning adult
education into human resource development. This top-down
view of training is one in which education is used as social
control rather than full multidimensional educational
experience. We learn to earn, not to live. Workers’
education as it develops will be financed on workers’
money, controlled in the sense of policy and managed in the
sense of administration, by workers’ organizations.
It is idle to debate whether workers’ education can be
controlled by others than the workers. It cannot be
controlled by public authorities, by universities, by middle-
class persons, it is adult education. Workers’ education can
no more be outside the labor movement than a trade union.
It is as definite an expression of the labor movement as the
trade union. When the union is guided by outside
benefactors it becomes a company union, a welfare club.
When education of the workers is controlled by other
organizations than the organization of the workers, it
remains inside the category of adult education, but it passes
out of that special kind of adult education which is workers’
education.
Techniques of presentation have differentiated
workers' education from adult education and the principle
that study must be factual and not dogmatic or biased has
been used to distinguish workers' education from
propaganda. Workers must be able to think and express
themselves logically and to view their experiences
rationally. Intelligent action is the goal. Methods of workers'

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education have developed consistently. Current fundamental
techniques devised years ago are now described by different
names. For example, the synthetic view of yesterday is now
called the situation approach. Through both methods,
various aspects of a subject are studied. Thus, if economic,
historical, and psychological factors explain a particular
situation, a class must look to economics, history, and
psychology for aid in analysis.
Unions can be involved in the delivery of education
activities, for instance they can organize union education, to
train health and safety representatives. They can be involved
in workers’ education by conducting literacy programmes.
They can participate in labor studies to analyze, for instance,
the sociological make-up of the working population of a
country. And they can provide sponsorship to enable
individuals to take courses. It is important to recognize that
unions can be involved in the whole continuum: from union
education to workers’ education to labor studies. The
emphasis a union places on each will depend on the make-
up of its membership, its goals, its resources, the economic
structure of the country and, sometimes in developing
countries, the priorities set by donors.
Despite the wide range of approaches and programmes
dictated by local circumstances, union education around the
world shares certain primary characteristics. It is group
oriented, as compared to the individual-centered approach of
schools and universities. It is part of the political agenda of
the union and is therefore not at all impartial in an academic
sense. It is based absolutely on the experiences and needs of
people in their workplaces. And participants are expected to
take the knowledge they have gained and share it with their
fellow workers. Far from being a weak version of the

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education provided by the public education system, union
education is a vibrant, politically-oriented branch of adult
education with its own pedagogical approaches, modes of
delivery, courses, structures and actors.
Education in the labor movement is not limited to
formal events such as day long seminars or long courses,
other activities which could be referred to as adjunct;
provide members with informal education about their union
or the labor movement. The people who organize them can
be considered as practicing workers’ education. Their
activities include editing union newspapers and creating and
maintaining union web sites. Working on the union web site,
for example, which provides links to news stories about
labor, can be considered an educational activity. Union
meetings and conferences can also be educational events.
Being a delegate at a union’s national convention is as much
a learning experience as attending a week-long course.
Each of the programs has program-specific political-
educational objectives that shape the curriculum content and
practicum. For example, the objectives for employed
workers focus on building workers’ knowledge of the
production process, developing the collective action of
workers, and expanding worker power at the point of
production. The political-pedagogical objectives for
unemployed workers focus on creating alternative forms of
generating income, economic solidarity, and expanding the
influence of the union among broad sectors of the
unemployed, both young and old. Finally, the pedagogical
objectives for union leadership training, centers its attention
on reinforcing working class organization on the shop floor,
enhancing the political-ideological capacity of workers, and

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shaping public policy by strengthening labor’s strategic
alliances with broader sectors of society.
Workers education aims at addressing the conditions
and position of the workers, the conditions can be at
different levels and dimensions. Firstly, there is the
dimension of objective conditions. What is out there that is
affecting them: the occupational health and safety, the
sexual harassment that is in society, which creates a lot of
insecurity to walk alone after the night shift. What are their
material conditions, living conditions, working conditions,
family conditions? Poor occupation and health relates to
their work conditions, no legal protection leads to
exploitation of workers, they can work 12 hours and only get
8 hours pay. We always separate working life with personal
life and with family life, but a life is a life, whether it is
work, family or personal. The individual personal life is also
related to the work situation, and it is also related to the
community. So, there should be an attempt to link and
address the various dimensions of workers’ lives in
educational activities.
It is not by chance that workers’ education altered the
subject matter, the content, of the teaching. Fresh from first-
hand experience of danger, monotony, and the workings of
the industrial system, labor rejects the abstractions of
academic political economy, and the purple chronicle of
kings in history. They want to know the adventure of the
common man down the ages. This means re-writing the
textbooks. The workers are forcing the experts to rewrite
them. Text-books are needed in all subjects-in technique of
leadership, civic culture, in American industrial history, in
trade union and labor history, in political history, in
economic geography, and so on. Text-books for American

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workers’ education have not been written. Sound
scholarship, simple statement, clear English, cheap price, is
the requirements. The probable line of procedure here is that
after discussion the teacher will draw up an outline of his
course. This outline will grow into leaflets; the leaflets into
pamphlets; the pamphlets into a text-book. The text-book,
then, will be written by a teacher of workers’ classes, and
will be an answer to the needs of the group.
A labor class text-book should be a pocket size
volume, containing about twelve lessons of, say, twenty
pages each; and should be written in a style that would lure
the student to further reading; that it should contain detailed
references and directions for more thorough study; and that
it should be developed inductively from familiar facts and
concrete data to general principles. Simplicity and clearness
would be of paramount importance in such literature. It
should be written with the unsophisticated and uneducated
workingman kept in mind. Texts should treat ostensibly the
commonplace problems that the average serious-minded
workman faces in his every-day work, but in reality
introducing him to great principles and ideals of social and
economic progress, not mere propaganda for any particular
doctrine, but an appeal to what is sanest and noblest in the
human mind.
In union meetings, learning may be seen as taking
place through 'participation in a community of practice. This
participation may take the form of simply being present,
listening and observing, with old-timers modeling the roles
and values that 'newcomers' are expected to acquire. For
example, one shop-steward recalled in an interview how,
when he first joined the union, he learnt from observing the
general Secretary in meetings. Participation also takes more

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active forms. While much learning takes place invisibly or
unconsciously through observation or participation, there are
also forms of pedagogy, more specifically, peer mentoring
or guided participation.
Action is an important aspect of the learning process;
that is, real learning is demonstrated by the participant’s
capacity to translate their intellectual understanding into
concrete action. A particularly important aspect of the
program’s methodological structure is that the
communication and debate of ideas at the center of the
learning process is not limited to speech and writing.
Knowledge can be ascertained through various mediums:
art, music, dance and cinema; even physical education is
considered a form of communication.
One of the instruction methods used in workers
education is that of resident lecturer. A visitor is invited to
spend a month with workers for the purpose of giving
courses and lectures. Educational conferences are
periodically held with two delegates from each union and
one or two delegates from each class. These conferences act
as an advisory committee on education to the union, which
in turn appoints its educational committee of seven as the
executive.
It is obvious that the holding of a class together will
depend largely upon the teacher’s personality and methods
of instruction as well as the subject matter. In the class room
he must provide the students an opportunity to express
themselves. Putting up questions to the students, and asking
them to make reports on certain books or articles have
helped to hold students. The teacher should endeavor as
much as possible to become familiar with the students, learn
something of their individual traits, and take an interest in

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their particular trade and labor problems. He should make
use, as much as possible, of charts, pictures, and other
illustrations, which visualize the subject he tries to cover.
Pamphlets, outlines of study, and mimeographed reading
lists should be freely used. Time in class is precious.
Preparation for the hour or two of meeting cannot be too
thorough. Material upon which aroused interest can feed
should be given to the students.
At various forums, trade unionists have reviewed the
relevance of the scope and content and concluded that, to a
large extent, workers education has succeeded in preparing
leadership to perform their duties and also informing
membership of their rights and obligations. Nevertheless, for
labor education to be more responsive to the dynamic
changes of trade liberalization, privatization and
retrenchment, advancement in technological developments,
increasing cases of violation of human and trade union
rights, it is necessary to initiate deliberate improvements in
the curriculum by raising awareness on the need for
acquisition of new skills, facilitating the strategic
networking and alliance between labor educators and the
larger civil society and sensitization and building of trade
union militancy. The challenge to respond dynamically will
call for the introduction of non-traditional courses such as
democracy and good governance, entrepreneurship
development, information technology, international trade,
trade union and politics, political economy, the environment,
social and cultural values, and young workers.
Workers’ education is always focused on identified
target groups within the organization and can assist in the
resolution of identified problems. Thus, methodological
planning approaches are important in meeting the targeted

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relevance of the courses desired. However, the methods,
techniques and materials are means and not end. The end is
the type and the quality of learning. In Africa, workers’
education seldom takes place within the confines of a
traditional classroom. Unionists, their leaders and the
facilitators interact through attending meetings, study
circles, field visits and group discussions in workshops
aimed at strategizing the way forward on issues closer to
their welfare and that of the larger communities in which
they live.
A variety of participatory or active methods are
applied, as well as passive techniques, including the lecture,
the discussion, the forum, the large group discussion, the
buzz session or small group discussion, case studies, role
playing, study circle and others. In effect, all these methods
are considered relevant, depending on the choice, objectives
and target groups. In terms of other appropriate
methodologies and approaches needed to make trade union
education more responsive and dynamic in the context of the
new challenges facing the trade union movement, it is
necessary for workers’ education to adapt to the new
opportunities and potential associated with information and
computer-based technology, such as the use of electronic
media and the Internet. In addition, workers’ education must
be called upon to take up the challenges posed by the
changing political platform by introducing new political
dimensions such as the impact of national and international
geopolitics on trade union work.
It is also critical to call for the adaptation of current
methodologies and approaches to take account of other
innovative techniques of education and learning such as
drama, traditional songs, and use of radio and print media. It

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is equally important to use research as a learning tool to
enhance awareness of current and future trends affecting
workers. Workers’ education has always taken many forms
and has constantly had to adapt to new situations. But its
basic principles have remained strictly adhered to.
Specialized training has sought to meet the specific needs of
trade unions and to be relevant to the types of people it is
aimed at. Importantly, workers’ education has also been
instrumental in contributing to the development and
strengthening of international trade union solidarity.
Workers’ education in Africa has concentrated on
labor related subjects, the activities have not entirely been
limited to bread and butter issues, such as collective
bargaining and wage negotiation, but have also included a
wide range of many other questions important to workers
and their communities. There are three broad levels of trade
union education basic, intermediate and advanced. These
three categories cover subjects such as: trade union history,
aims and objectives of trade unions, handling members’
problems, some aspects of labor law structure and the
functions of trade unions, collective bargaining, health and
safety at work and the duties of trade union officers. Other
specific subjects may be added. They include trade unions
and the economy, human and trade union rights, women’s
participation in trade unions, ILO Conventions, international
trade union organizations, leadership skills, strategic
planning, organizing and public-speaking techniques.
Workers’ or labor Education falls inside the
classification of Adult Education. But it is its own kind of
adult education, and is not to be confused with university
extension, evening high schools, night schools, public
lectures and education by employers. Labor education is,

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inside the labor movement, and cannot be imposed from
above or from without. It is training in the science of
reconstruction. It is a means to the liberation of the working
class, individually and collectively. In pursuing that aim, it
uses all aids that will enrich the life of the group and of the
worker in the group, and that will win allegiance of the
worker to the group. The aim then is clear-cut, but the
content and the methods are catholic. Workers’ education is
scientific and cultural, propagandist and civic, industrial and
social. It concerns itself with the individual and his needs,
the citizen and his duties, the trade unionist and his
functions, the group and its problems, the industry and its
conditions.
Abu (2002) opined that, education is necessity for man
in order to articulate himself and achieve fullness. But the
formal system, which is elitist, discriminatory and
installment, cannot alone help man to attain all education he
needs for achievement of self-fulfillment. The
terminologies, such as, continuing education, recurrent
education, education Permanente, and lifelong education,
have been used by different bodies to stress that education
should be coterminous with life. To cater for the educational
aspirations of all employees, workers education plays a very
important role. Trade unions should heighten efforts in
workers education so as to afford citizens opportunities to
attain self-fulfillment and fullness.

The Function of Workers’ Education

The function of workers' education in its broad sense is

to compensate for the failures of the formal education
system and to support a variety of social movements

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attempting to redress social, economic, cultural and political
disadvantage. In fact, workers' education with a focus on
basic skills and, for example, access courses, can improve
the problem of disadvantage. But for overcoming the
inequalities built into society arguably, a more radical,
challenging, and transformative model of education: one in
which working people are enabled to develop a critical
political consciousness is needed. So, the study of workers
education would therefore have social significance for the
operation and development of the social structure. Education
is certainly a way to obtain the goal, but the opportunities
available to workers for further learning depend on the
structure and distribution of power in society.
The function of workers’ education is to provide an
education that makes workers aware of the forces that
oppress them, consequently liberate them from oppression.
Education of a liberating character is a process by which the
educator invites learners to recognize and unveil reality
critically. The domestication practice tries to impart a false
consciousness to learners, resulting in a facile adaptation to
their reality; whereas a liberating practice cannot be reduced
to an attempt on the part of the educator to impose freedom
on the learners.
Workers’ education is considered to be the very
backbone of the life of the organization, the promise of its
future. It declared: It is not enough to merely organize the
workers. Organization in itself is no end and has no
meaning. If we content ourselves with that and make no
effort at higher elevation we simply confirm the worker in
the status of a burden.
To appreciate the function of workers education is to
understand each stakeholder’s behavior as it affects one

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another. Both the workers and employers need to be
educated in workers psychology particularly in reducing
friction and tension that is a normal feature between the
parties. Workers’ is meant to serve the interest of workers
and their unions by making them aware of their rights and
the avenues of pursuing their interests. It helps the employer
interest by ensuring high productivity through committed
employees who are ready to observe the rules of the game
with all stakeholders of the industry.
Workers have distinct interests such as: they wish to
know what their wages will buy or why they are
unemployed; whether or not they should join a trade union;
what their political affiliations should be. They wish to read
and think critically about their situation and the world in
which they live. Therefore workers' education has
encouraged workers to study contemporary economic and
social problems continuously and intelligently, to plan their
sound solution, and to carry out their design together and
with others. The previous education of workers, their
community life, and group experiences influence
curriculum. Accordingly, a particular class or unit may have
a political, socio-economic, or cultural focus. The basic
method is freedom of discussion and of teaching within a
group primarily designed for workers, either in their own
communities or in resident centers elsewhere.
The workforce remains indispensable machinery
through which goods and services are produced. Therefore,
no society could succeed without having working class
whose efforts are geared towards attaining societal
development. The employment patterns and trends as well as
technological changes of our society have called for
continuous learning opportunities of workers to be able to fit

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in to the scheme of work dynamic situations and conditions.
The welfare of workers and their family members is very
important, in fact exploitation of workers of any form must
be fought to enable workers gain their personality as
individuals and members of the society.
A number of unions and trade union centers organize
educational programmes for specific categories of members,
for example women-only courses aimed at providing a
learning environment where women feel more comfortable
about expressing opinions and are perhaps more likely to
participate than at traditional male-dominated union schools.
Unions are also providing family and community
educational events. A variety of reasons had promoted the
separate education of adult workers. Psychologists have
shown that workers are unlike other groups of adults in
reading and speaking ability, comprehension of simple facts,
and power of concentration. Their uncompleted elementary
schooling, their physical and mental fatigue has been listed
among the responsible factors.
Workers are the core of production in work
institutions and are usually engaged in interaction with non-
human materials as well as other human beings. This in
essence requires continuous development of skills and
knowledge to meet up with the ever increasing demand of
updated knowledge to enhance productivity, peace and
cooperation, development for personal and institutional
successes. This type of education is meant to reduce conflict
through the interaction of employees in a positive manner. It
enables employees to be able to identify their rights and
obligations as well as their limits in the organizations. This
kind of education is referred to as labor education or
workers education.

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 Workers education introduces the labor force in taking
active participation in trade unionism at all levels of the
polity. Through workers education, workers identify
common problems and create solutions to them. It thus
brings development and awareness to them with a strong
sense of solidarity between them in achieving recognition
and strength as a group.
The modern university does not have for its major
interest and prime concern the free, open and unafraid
consideration of modern issues. The labor group is
beginning to demand a free, open and unafraid consideration
of modern issues in institutions of its own. Education in our
universities and colleges is essentially capitalistic, in that it
glorifies competition and seeks to produce an efficient
individual. Education that may properly be called workers’
education is essentially socialistic, in that it glorifies
cooperation and seeks to produce an efficient social and
industrial order.
Workers’ education is especially necessary at this
time, when the struggle between capital and labor is
becoming sharper; when an attempt is made to crush
unionism altogether. Organized labor is spreading out into
the fields of cooperation; into banking, into controlling its
own press and so on. These constructive ventures demand a
trained and self-disciplined rank and file. Although the
employers have had the benefit of education, they still feel
the necessity of keeping in touch with new events by
bringing men of prominence to their clubs and luncheons
and having talks on important subjects. Thus, the employers
realize the necessity for further study while labor has had
neither fundamental education nor discussions on present-
day problems.

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 Workers’ education, as it spreads, is of course vitally
concerned with facts in the social sciences. It is concerned
with the collection, classification and interpretation of these
facts. This means that workers’ education requires labor
research. One of the continuous and all-powerful influences
in workers’ education is the newspaper. Labor education
requires the labor paper. So as fast as labor education grows,
there will spring up, out of the same root, labor research and
the labor newspaper. Research is one of the sources of
supply for education. The daily, weekly and monthly paper
is one of the methods of imparting education to the workers.
The labor movement will remain inside the squirrel-cage of
wages and prices, until it employs all three- research,
education, and the newspaper.
The work of the Educational Department of any trade
union is based on a conviction that the aims and aspirations
of the workers can be realized only through their own efforts
in the economic and educational fields. While organization
gives them power, education gives them the ability to use
that power intelligently and effectively. The courses offered
by the Educational Department are planned to accomplish
this aim. While some of them are intended to satisfy the
intellectual and the emotional needs of workers, the main
emphasis is laid on those which meet their practical needs.
The problems of the labor movement are analyzed and
clarified by the study of general principles underlying them.
In this way is it possible to train fresh energy, new
experiences and power for the service of the entire Labor
Movement and to help members to achieve their purposes
with the ultimate goal of living a full, rich and happy life.
From its genesis workers education functioned as a
weapon for advancing the welfare of the workers. It was

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designed to enable the proletariat to emancipate itself from
the slavery of capitalism, and to get it ready for a millennial
industrial democracy. The initiative often came not from
studious minded workers, but from enthusiastic intellectuals
and idealistic up-lifters. The cultural gesture was often
pathetic or comic. It was not uncommon for those who had
completed the courses of study in a workers' college to find
themselves; more unadjusted than they were before.
Workers’ education was not for everyone, certainly not
for the person who merely knows something. Knowledge
derived from experience, on the other hand, was the essence
of workers education. The worker would seek education
because he has reason for personal complaint. It was the
field of action that distinguished the educational situation of
the adult from that of the child. To the learning situation, the
adult brought guilt, entanglement, want and pain, wrapped in
experiences of a sort still foreign to a child. A child's
education flowed with nature, whereas adult's was in
conflict with nature as he or she strove for self-mastery.
Adult education grows on the graves of those budding
dreams which have not ripened.
For the union, the education of the working-class in its
multiple formats was a strategic issue present in the most
crucial of labor’s political battles and vital for the future of
the labor movement. Education was a process through which
workers expanded their role as citizens and activists,
organized, mobilized, and subsequently strengthened their
capacity to influence the political decision-making process.
The program expanded organized labor’s constituency to
broad sectors of the working-class not just union members,
developing class consciousness and the critical mass

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necessary to advance labor’s political and economic
demands.
Workers’ education functions as a process of liberating
the working class from the oppression of their employers.
Education has been used by the dominant forces in society
to control the working class, to limit the consciousness of
the oppressed and thereby limit their participation in
government, society and social transformation. In opposition
to this domesticating form and content is an education for
liberation that develops critical consciousness, leadership
and supports action for social change. Hence, liberatory
education is based on the students' potential to understand
and change their lives and the world. Banking or
domesticating education assumes that the student is an
object there to listen, to obey and not to question.
Domesticating education prepares adults to silently follow
their leaders. It is the ideal training program for
corporations, banks, dictatorships and the armed forces that
require blind conformity and obedience, permitting
decisions to be made that affect the masses of people with
the least participation, interference or resistance from them.
Workers’ education is an essential tool in the building
of participative lifelong learning for union members, staff
and leaders, as they create and strengthen unions. The
acceptance of workers’ education as an essential tool for the
development of labor unions is made clear whenever labor
organizations come together at meetings, conventions or
congresses to set their policies and design their action plans.
Invariably, there are resolutions or suggested action
programmes referring to the need for education, either
directed to union members or the general public. It is these
resolutions and programmes adopted by union members or

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representatives of affiliates which provide labor educators
with their legitimacy to instruct facilitate and act.
The education and literacy of workers should not
simply replicate existing norms and parameters that prepare
workers for the global workplace; to do so would legitimize
the process of marginalization. Education and the program’s
pedagogical methods are viewed as a singular process that
raise the social and political consciousness of workers, while
simultaneously preparing them to advance their demands in
the sphere of politics. An important aspect of the program
argued that the struggle against marginalization and the
demand for social inclusion were integral aspects of a
process essential for expanding working class power. In this
sense, education was not viewed as charitable work for the
underprivileged. Workers’ education was the backdrop for
the deep ideological conflict emerging in contemporary
society between market and non-market views of
socioeconomic development.
Another function of workers’ education is to train
promising youths, who are already officials, or are potential
leaders, or are the most ambitious of the rank and file.
Workers’ education will train them in the technique of their
particular union and industry. It will train them in the
relation of that union and industry to society and the state.
This kind of workers’ education gives the technique of
leadership.
It includes courses in labor law, the use of the
injunction, workmen’s compensation, industrial and health
insurance, unemployment, Federal agencies of inspection,
employers’ use of a secret service, duties of the walking
delegate. Perhaps eventually a place can be found in the
workers’ education curriculum for a course or courses

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dealing with aspects of the problem of management and
production. Although it is inevitable that present interest in
these questions should be slight, it seems equally inevitable
that the leaders among the workers must more and more
equip themselves with knowledge of the technique of their
industry on both its administrative and its operative side.
During the colonial period in Africa, workers
education was the silver bullet which was used to put an end
to colonial rule. The educational activities provided by trade
unions were largely meant to awaken the consciousness of
workers on the need for collective efforts to defend their
interests, instill trade union principles of unity to ordinary
workers, and develop trade union leadership that could
handle workers’ problems. The activities were organized
largely on a sub-regional basis, often lasting two weeks to a
month.
The methods of teaching and the materials used were
often based on the experiences of trade unions in the
respective colonizing countries. To a large extent, due to the
low levels of literacy of the African workers, the language
used to deliver the message was, in many instances, not
easily understood by the majority. Nonetheless, the message
on the need for unity and solidarity was clear to most: the
more the colonial governments and employers resisted the
development of trade unions, the more the spirit of trade
unionism grew.
This early period was also characterized by an increase
of worker participation in the struggle for independence. At
the international level, the optimism about the future of trade
unionism in Africa was also reflected in the decision by the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
to establish a permanent educational institution: the African

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Labor College in Kampala, Uganda. The college had an
immediate positive impact on trade union education in
Africa. It created an environment where young trade
unionists discussed issues facing them at home, and shared
ideas on how to deal with them. There is no doubt that it
gave impetus to the development of a vibrant trade union
movement that was articulate and aggressive in presenting
its demands.
Trade unions aim to train intelligent and conscious
union men and women to strive for the reconstruction of
society. Workers' education, therefore, has had to prepare
workers to act in economic, political, and social spheres.
The trade unions under consideration have developed
instruction for workers along three lines: mass education,
classroom education, and training for trade union service.
Mass education has been designed to overcome the apathy
and inertia of the majority of workers. Individuals otherwise
uninterested in education are taught subtly and indirectly to
be loyal to organized labor and its ideals.
Workers’ education has formed an integral part of
trade union activities since the advent of international trade
union activism in Africa in the 1950s. Workers’ education
reaffirms the identity of the organization while at the same
time upholds its main objectives. And although it has taken
many forms, the primary aim has remained the promotion of
the labor movement’s core principles, values and ideals.
Workers’ education is indeed the overall strategic instrument
that allows workers collectively to realize their capacities in
promoting, defending and enhancing their interest. At the
same time, it provides an avenue to analyze its position vis-
à-vis the social, economic and geopolitical situation
surrounding its environment and the workplace.

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 Workers’ education attempts to give the most eager of
the rank and file a social or civic education, aimed at
showing the workers how they are governed. This enables
workers to deal with the economic system under which they
work, and the nature of the world in which they find
themselves. Programmes in workers’ education include
general cultural courses in history, economics and literature.
The thing aimed at is a world view. The favorite courses
remain history, economics, literature, because they are an
interpretation of man in his world.
Education is the effort of the soul to find a true
expression or interpretation of experience, and to find it, not
alone, but with the help of others, fellow-students. By
showing to a man his place in the long process and the
scheme of things, education helps him to live the good life.
The rank and file will not be interested in this kind of labor
education for many years. The most alert and energetic men
and women will alone be attracted. Workers’ education is
education of a tiny minority, the most promising of the
youth.
Workers education should build worker control,
collective experience and understanding, deepening working
class consciousness. Education should ensure fullest
discussion amongst workers thus building democracy.
Education is a weapon for shaping mass struggles of the
present and the future of our class. In the 2000s, trade union
education programmes proliferated and became increasingly
planned and structured. The education focused mainly on
practical areas such as wage negotiations and disciplinary
procedures, but courses were also developed dealing with
broader political education, labor history, labor law, political
economy and international trade unionism.

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 In many African countries, trade unions played an
important role in championing the cause of democratization
and became one of the leading forces for political change.
Having achieved democratization, trade unions faced a
number of dilemmas. First, they were confronted with the
dilemma of being part of government by virtue of having
being an ally to the new ruling party. Thus they were often
constrained to criticize the party they helped bring to power,
sometimes even when the policies pursued were perceived
detrimental to workers’ interests. Second, the formation of
political parties and emergence of a vibrant civil society
diminished trade union’s political role and influence. Third,
a weak party system and the absence of a party specifically
promoting workers’ interests made it difficult for unions to
develop a political platform to articulate workers’ interests.
The experiences of the union movement are not new.
In the seventies many training schools were open. These
schools were aimed at training militants so that they could
be better prepared to carry on organizational work in the
plants. There was little public involvement in these activities
and with the expansion of the workers movement these
activities were relegated to a secondary level. Whatever their
ideological position, unions offered skill training to their
members.
Workers education must serve the interest of the
working class and the society at large, no matter its
orientation. Its concept is to intractably connect with the
struggle for the elimination of illiteracy. He further stated
that the comprehensive and highly integrated new facet of
workers education addresses the challenges of globalization
of the production process, communication and technologies.

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 Three types of program, mass education, classroom
education, and training for trade union service, constitute the
educational pattern of the trade unions. In practice, the
distinct forms merge into a cohesive whole. The primary
purpose of the educational work is to achieve a strong and
effective labor movement. The goal is to perfect collective
bargaining by giving leaders and rank and file a broad
outlook. Workers' education encourages impersonal and
detached discussion and handling of problems within trade
unions; cautious action so as not to endanger the livelihood
of thousands of workers; and realization that no decision is
infallible or irrevocable.
There is a tendency among unions to treat organizing,
politics and education as distinct activities rather than a
continuous process of learning and action. In other instances
there is a predisposition of labor organizations to subjugate
education to the union’s immediate political interests.
Viewing the role of education in this manner works against
enhancing working class organization and power, it is self-
defeating for both the immediate and long-term goals of
organized labor. Education needs to be understood as
integral and essential to every aspect of union work, and not
just education as a scripture, but an open-ended, experience-
based, problem solving education for transformation and
social justice.
Workers’ education is not an end in itself, but one of
the steps in the advance towards emancipation of mankind.
This would be reached only when the broad masses of the
workers and those representing them are in possession of all
the knowledge and experience necessary to change the
structures of society and to banish want and fear forever.
Thus, workers’ education is the mass education of workers

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aimed at changing society for the better. Since the beginning
of worker’ education, the principle that workers education
should be aimed at the mass of workers still stands. The
major difference is that, today, workers’ education is aimed
not only at changing individual societies, but, because of
globalization, the whole world.
The relevance of workers’ education cannot be
overemphasized; it is cardinal to the socio-economic and
political development of a nation. For example, Due to the
absence of formal political opposition during the one party
state in Zambia, and considering trade unions democratic
character, unions were the only organized force to challenge
authoritarian tendencies and precipitous economic decline.
The functions of workers are impeded by economic
barriers as poverty, malnutrition and inadequate education.
He opines that workers education as a process of retraining
and reinvigorating is able to address the diversity of workers
needs and ensure they achieve economic and social life in a
culturally diverse and changing world. In the view of the
foregoing, it is evident that there is need to facilitate the
wellbeing of workers since development in all ramifications
rest on their activities in the nation.
Workers' education has not developed without
opposition. Certain individuals believe that standard
educational facilities enable all, including workers, to study
effectively. They maintain that psychological reasons for
separate instruction are being weakened, as more people
than formerly are receiving similar rudimentary education.
Others claim that workers' education is propaganda based
upon a class philosophy which threatens our democracy. A
third group of opponents fears that even an objective, critical
survey of social events will lead to revolutionary activities.

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 Current public instruction cannot give adult workers
necessary social perspective. Objective education for
workers is not propaganda; solidarity among workers should
not be feared since modern society has many interest and
pressure groups which at times cooperate with each other. In
addition, advocates show at what specific points instruction
aids the laboring class. They claim that through instruction,
workers may know the experience of their group, in the past
and in the present. Through history they may understand the
mistakes of their predecessors; psychology teaches them
how to cooperate with fellow workers and employers;
economics promotes an understanding of the employers'
business upon which rests their livelihood; through politics
they glimpse their place as citizens and workers. Public
speaking and written composition tend to make them
articulate and community organization to encourage
effective activity.
The potential of workers education is that it education
for transformation of society economically, socially and
politically, it produces a labor force that is conscientised; it
is only through workers education that the workers can be
equipped with the critical consciousness necessary for
political action.
For example in Zambia, the Zambia Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) was the most potent force in Zambian
politics. A vibrant union led by Frederick Chiluba and his
lieutenant Newstead Zimba provided the ideal checks and
balances to the system. Owing to the educational activities
of the labor movement, in 1990 Mr. Chiluba became
president of Zambia. The hierarchy of the union moved into
governance and unions became so piously attached to
government and the worker hardly felt their presence.

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Historically, African trade unions have been active in broad
popular struggles for independence and national liberation.
Trade unions have been central in resistance to authoritarian
and dictatorial rule. This has required the building of wider
social and political alliances, both with like-minded groups
in civil society and with political parties whose programs
reflect the concerns and interests of workers. In other words,
throughout the long history of their existence, trade unions
have aligned themselves to groups and movements that
share their values and concerns. As a result this enabled
trade unions to reach out to a larger population than those
directly involved in formal employment, thus greatly
enhancing their legitimacy. It is this broad organizational
reach of the trade unions and their representative function of
a broad section over a wider issues of development, equity
and social justice that qualifies the trade unions to be
referred to collectively as the labor movement.
The political role played by trade unions in Africa can
be traced back to pre-independence times. In Zambia, like in
most of African countries, trade unions formed the nucleus
of nationalist parties and were instrumental in challenging
colonial and authoritarian rule. In particular, trade unions
formed alliances with nationalist parties and other
progressive organizations to fight for workers’ and human
rights and later fought alongside nationalists for national
independence.
In particular, unions fought battles with employers and
government through strike actions, demonstrations
demanding decent wages, and improved working conditions.
But after independence, efforts were made to integrate
unions into ruling party structures and turn them into
‘transmission belts’ of government policies. Strategies to

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integrate trade unions into ruling party structures were
intensified under conditions of one-party state. However,
unions are known to have resisted these efforts and often
fought to maintain their autonomy against all odds.
Workers education is knowledge acquired by
stakeholders to enhance individual and organizational
performance and productivity. This is beneficial to the
worker, unions, organization and the economy of the nation.
Workers education could be acquired through individual,
union and corporate efforts in training, symposia, academic
institutions, etc. It brings improvement to situations where
there are deficiencies or lack of required competence.
Women’s need for labor education stems from the
multiplicity of roles played by women. They are
professionals, members of workers unions’, mothers’ and
home keepers, community members who are equally stake-
holders in the polity. These roles are significant to the
development of any people and nation. Literature reveals
that two thirds of the world’s 876 million illiterates are
female. Of the world’s one billion poorest people, an
estimated three-fifths are women and girls.
Workers education serves the interest of workers and
their union by making them aware of their rights and
ethically sound means of pursuing their interest. The
employers could also benefit from labor education resulting
in high productivity through committed employees who are
always ready to observe the rules of the game as
stakeholders in the industry. The nation also benefits in
labor education as it serves the interest of all by ensuring
economic growth and industrial peace as a prerequisite for
increased foreign and local investments. Workers education
is important for personnel and officials of the Ministry of

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Labor and related departments. They need to be well
groomed in labor education to be informed of acceptable
industrial practices and policies to be veritable and effective
partners with workers/unions to ensure congruent industrial
relations environment.
The government performs the dual role of employer
and executive arm of the state. It initiates and implements
policies through its organs and functionaries. Events have
revealed some government actions or policies to affect the
well-being of workers. Labor education could give
government functionaries knowledge in labor management
relations which will be of immense help in taking decisions.
The example of collective bargaining tactics will make them
aware of desisting from taking unilateral decisions. The
general public is also required to have knowledge of workers
education to understand workers, particularly their responses
to issues.
Governments across much of the developed world are
concerned to increase labor market activity rates and
employment among older workers. A variety of policies
have been advocated including the improvement of
education and training provision. Clearly workers education
is always designed to, and usually succeeds in, increasing
the human capital of its recipients, in the sense that, to
varying degrees, knowledge and skills are enhanced.
There are many methods of financing labor education.
There is no difficulty in raising the money, once an interest
has been aroused in the significance of the work. When local
instructors can be secured, student fees may at times cover
most of the expenses. When local teachers are lacking or
student fees are insufficient, local unions should be visited
and appealed to. From what experience we have had, it was

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found that but few locals refuse a contribution to workers’
education when the appeal is presented to them. Some labor
schools have had a specified affiliation fee of about ten
dollars which was charged each local union. In the smaller
cities, however, it was found that it was best to have no
specified amount. Unions have usually been found to
become generous contributors as soon as the work is
appreciated.
The perception of workers education by various
stakeholders such as government, employer, workers and the
society reveals its importance. Each of the identified
stakeholders in the socio- economic sphere of the nation sees
and understands labor education differently. The perception
of government and employers expresses workers’ education
as that type that can improve employee skills and knowledge
to be more productive. In that it should also help increase
employers control over the workers. This opinion of
employers’ control of labor through workers education
portrays employers of labor as being opposed to workers’
awareness and development. The essence of workers
education is that it should teach the workers to be dutiful and
should inculcate in them a sense of duty and reverence. It is
necessary for the working class to acquire the habit of
cheerfully undertaking the task entrusted to them.
Workers’ Education has been reoriented and reduced
to education for work. This movement has been relentless
and accompanied by the professionalization of the field. It is
a natural outgrowth of a noncritical stance of functionalism,
capitalism, and technology by those who once saw education
linked to personal and social transformation necessary for
democracy. A critical response from the field has occurred

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with a number of persons challenging the way workers’
education is being reduced to human resource development.
Preparation for work has always been an acceptable
and rewarded focus of education under capitalism, whether
jobs are available or not. The better we prepare people for
work, the more available cheap labor will be readily
available to meet the needs of the corporations. The
classroom that focuses solely on the preparation for work is
without question, a domesticating influence on learners. This
follows the dictates of corporations and sustains the interests
of capital. Capitalism as an economic system concentrates
educational resources on insuring the workforce is ready for
maximal production - not for critical thinking, understanding
history, or active involvement in changing social conditions.
The logic of production for profit dictates that: if
workers need training, then we must train them to satisfy the
market place. The qualities of obedience, discipline, hard
work and loyalty can all serve this purpose, much like what
is demanded of a slave, a trained animal or a factory worker.
Meanwhile, as our country continues to produce less and
consume more, the need for additional workers decreases.
The threat to workers’ education programs from increasing
budget cuts grows out of the basic economic relationships of
our society, which views more and more of the population as
dispensable, disposable or unnecessary.
Workers education and literacy programs are poorly
funded and continually in danger because they are seen by
government as unnecessary. Adult students who are
immigrants, women, minorities and working class are more
and more viewed by capitalism as dispensable. In the field
of adult education you can see that preparation for minimum
wage jobs in the labor market is rewarded, but critical

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thought and student leadership are not. There is more reason
than ever for massive workers’ education programs and for
this education to be aimed at human liberation.
Three main factors have been recognized in securing
financial support. One has been the difficulty of awakening
and retaining the interest of organized labor in educational
activities. The second has centered about the effect upon
control when financial aid has been given by a specific
organization. The third has been the actual trend in
contributions. Many leaders have believed that an
organization naturally becomes interested in any venture
which it supports financially.
Education is a fundamental human right. As such it is
clearly the responsibility of the state and a core element of
any development policy committed to social justice.
Securing the right to education is a key to enabling people to
secure other human rights, yet the right to education is
violated by governments around the world. In many
countries, especially in the developing world, the inability of
governments and the private sector to create new jobs is
forcing millions of people, especially women and young
people, to find work as best they can outside formal
structures. The informal economy, which covers many
activities in the commerce, production and services sectors,
has emerged as an instant solution to the problem of
unemployment and underemployment. The result is
precarious employment characterized by instability, low
income, lack of social protection and absence of freedom of
association and collective bargaining.
There are no quick, readily available answers as to
how unions can help workers in the informal economy. But
this situation opens an important opportunity to expand the

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role of union education in the labor movement. Workers
involved in learning activities organized by unions could
participate in the creation of the new knowledge needed to
improve the situation. Workers in the informal economy
themselves could devise effective approaches to
strengthening the role of unions in the informal economy.
The key to addressing the needs of workers in the informal
economy may lie in providing more education for union
leaders, staff and members. Although it is not the role of
labor educators to develop policies to tackle such serious
issues as those facing workers in the informal economy,
these educators have a clear and essential mandate to
provide educational resources and opportunities so that
union leaders and members can learn how to confront issues
crucial to the labor movement.
Workers education is confronted with the problem of
text-books, because most of the available text-books are
written either for college or high school students or for
children in the elementary schools. To solve this problem it
was decided to have the teachers prepare pamphlets on the
subject-matter of their courses. These pamphlets will be
used as text-books by the classes, since teachers who have
had experience with workers’ classes are best fitted to write
textbooks for them. Workers faced with myriad of problems,
these include issues of inadequate wages, uneasy access to
education, harsh conditions of work and depleting economic
values.
In Zambian workplaces, several training programmes
are organized for workers. These are either through the
human resources department or in conjunction with other
organizations. The resentment about the total success of
most of such has been impeded by several factors. These

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factors include: insincerity and viability of some of the
programmes; no separate training programmes for women;
accessing finance to pursue post training development;
weakness of the women group to challenge some
organizational policies that malign women in work
employment; and the global economic recession greatly
which has many people out of job through close down of
many industrial organizations. These challenges have caused
reactions from workers in several forms ranging from lack
of commitment to work, engaging in other activities and
engaging employers and government in strives which have
continued to affect national production by losing man hours
to strikes and other forms of workers resentments.
The nature and form of trade union education in Africa
has substantially been influenced by the changes that have
affected the world of work. The world economy has been
undergoing dramatic changes at a breath-taking pace in the
past two decades. In effect, these changes have necessitated
trade unions to be strong and build the capacity to engage
governments, employers and other development actors. This
being the case, trade unions needed to broaden their base
and build up a wider appeal. This requires organizing more
members in the formal sector and especially among women
and young workers. They also need to extend their
organizational representation to sectors that have so far not
been the traditional base of trade unions. Trade union
education has enabled members and leaders not only to
understand new trends in social and economic development,
but also to engage employers, governments and international
organizations to ensure that the labor movement viewpoint
is heard.

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 The post-colonial phase of trade union education took
effect as soon as many countries in Africa gained their
political independence in the early 1960s. The struggle
against colonial rule had obviously revealed the trade union
capacity to mobilize workers for specific goals. The
nationalists, who had worked closely with trade unionists
but had replaced colonial governments upon winning the
struggle for independence, moved quickly to establish one-
party regimes. It was argued then that trade union
independence in the face of a war against poverty, disease
and ignorance was a luxury that no African country could
afford. Africa, it was said, needed to unite its people under
one leadership. The relentless rhetoric mounted by the
politicians put trade unions on the defensive as they had not
prepared themselves to fight back. Arguably, it was during
this period that trade unionists in Africa faced enormous
political pressures.
Today, with the advent of information and
communication technologies, and particularly the Internet, a
new dimension has been brought to trade union education.
Educators are now considering themselves as architects and
engineers constructing the bridge to the so-called “digital
divide”, for the benefit of unionists and their communities.
Trade unions, as significant interest groups in the
communities, are also developing a regional and national
presence as part of the global information society. As in
many other social and economic issues affecting modern
society, trade union educators are playing the roles of
advisers, teachers and advocates to a mix of citizenry with
varying, often limited, levels of technological knowledge.
Educators argue that, in their position as the line of defense
for their membership and the general populace, trade unions

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are probably better positioned to sell the benefits of the
digital age than most self-proclaimed, undemocratic, rigid
and unfocused civil society institutions.
Limitations in workers education arises when the trade
unions are compromised by their associations with the ruling
elites. Workers education which is supposed to be premised
on the liberation of workers, if not properly handled can be a
conduit of domesticating workers, and spreading
government propaganda. It has been noted that one thing
which made Chiluba and the team which took over the
ZCTU leadership in 1974 ‘attractive’ was that they appeared
not to be interested in government positions, only in fighting
for good salaries and wages and conditions of work for the
workers. The leaders who had gone before them saw
themselves as part of the nationalist movement leadership
first and labor leaders second. In 1991, Chiluba and others in
the labor movement who were considered true blooded labor
leaders showed that they had also just been waiting for an
opportunity to present itself for them to take over the
political leadership and use power to their gratification and
for the benefit of the workers.
Radical education traditions within the labor
movement remain, although the trade union movement has
lost much of the militancy that characterized its early years,
and its education work has been weakened and
compromised. Radical learning does not only take place in
these organized spaces, however; members' participation in
on-going union activities develops their political
understanding and working class identity, while moments of
mass action 'teach' workers not only about tactics, but also
about political and economic power.

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 The lesson from the marriage of convenience between
the labor movement and the MMD contracted in 1990
should be that a united labor movement should not allow
itself to become an appendage of any political party. The
ZCTU found itself stuck in a bad marriage with the MMD
because the terms of the partnership were not properly
negotiated. In this regard, even when the MMD
government’s economic policies were badly hurting the
workers, the ZCTU clung on to it, seeing it as a part of itself.
Whether the MMD saw itself as part of the ZCTU is very
doubtful. The labor movement did not even want to hear of a
party calling itself a ‘labor party’ because as far as it was
concerned, the MMD was the labor party. But the MMD
was never a labor party, founded with the purpose of serving
the workers’ interests.
The existence of several political parties in the country
also contributed to the weakening of the labor movement.
The absence of a strong opposition party meant that the
labor movement could not threaten the MMD with defection
to gain leverage with the government. When Chiluba
became president of Zambia after leading the labor
movement for seventeen years, he used his knowledge of the
movement to push through economic policies which hurt the
workers but which Kaunda had found difficult to push
through because of opposition from the Chiluba-led labor
movement.
In this regard, as has been argued by several writers,
the fact of Chiluba being president of Zambia became a big
challenge for the labor movement as he contributed to
weakening the movement which had given him so much.
Some trade unions had over the years suffered from having
weak leadership, especially at branch level. This meant that

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members of such unions with weak leadership did not
receive good guidance and sometimes engaged in activities
which tended to undermine trade union strength, such as
wildcat strikes. The leadership which took over the labor
movement after Chiluba and the others moved into
government was seen to have weakened itself and the labor
movement by identifying itself too closely with the MMD,
for which it had a ‘soft spot’. The MMD leadership took
advantage of this friendship to implement policies which
hurt the workers. The IMF and World Bank policies which
the MMD government implemented with a lot of
determination further undermined the position of labor
leaders as they affected collective bargaining in the country.
It became common for the Ministry of Finance to decide the
percentages of salaries and wages to be awarded to workers
outside the collective bargaining unit. This meant that the
labor leaders were no longer gaining much for their
members in terms of improved salaries and wages and
conditions of service.
Concomitant to the obstacles to trade union growth
already identified (global economic reforms, technological
advancement, drastic change in climatic and environment
changes, and labor market dynamics) trade union education
in Africa is undergoing teething problems. For instance,
trade union educational activities remain heavily dependent
on outside financial resources. Moreover, these foreign
sources are shrinking while demand for them continues to
grow. This means unions have to take certain bold steps,
among other things, by having to do so much with so little.
Trade unions must, as a matter of urgency, take appropriate
measures to address this issue. National trade union centers
and their affiliated organizations need to value education by

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explicitly budgeting for basic training activities within their
respective organizations. Unions should also be encouraged
to –undertake educational activities.

CHAPTER NINE

PIONEERS OF TRADE UNIONISM IN

ZAMBIA

Introduction
The imperativeness of the trade unions in advocating for the
plight, rights and improved working conditions cannot be
underestimated. Not only does the labour movement concern
itself with workers’ plight they are also a civil society that
advocate for human rights and dignity. History has shown
that the labour movement has been pivotal in a number of
political revolutions and reformations. Although it may not
be practical to mention all those whose efforts and thoughts
have contributed into the culmination of what is today a
formidable labour movement consisting of highly trained
and professional leaders, it would be an oversight not to
briefly highlight the humble contributions of such great
unionists as Lawrence Katilungu, Timothy Mwaba
Walamba, Frederick Titus Jacob Chiluba, Newstead Zimba
and Cosmas Mukuka.
In the contemporary world leadership in the trade
union can no longer be confined to the mere possession of
personal traits such as vibrant oratory skills. It demands for

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intellectual acumen and understanding skills. One must be
able to comprehend labour issues from a global perspective.
Taking cognizance of the fact that we do not exist in
isolation but are interdependent, a good unionist is one who
is able to articulate how the global economy triggers
changes in regional and national economies. It is in this light
that we pay tribute to the leaders who shaped the ideological
orientation of trade unionism in Zambia.

LAWRENCE CHOLA KATILUNGU

Lawrence Katilungu was the most powerful black

man in Zambia in the late 1950s and he this was because he
led Zambia’s trade union movement. He was the man who
created and organised trade unionism in Zambia. Katilungu
even more than Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula was the man
with an alternative power base to Kenneth Kaunda in 1961.
Lawrence Chola Katilungu, was born in the northern

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province of Northern Rhodesia in Luwingu in January 1914.
A member of the royal clan of the Bemba people, he was the
grandson of Chief Chipalo and a member of abena Ng’andu
clan and therefor related to the Chitimukulu, the paramount
chief of the Bemba.
He was educated at Catholic mission schools up to
Form II level and was employed as a teacher briefly before
he joined the mines as a 22-year-old man in 1936. He
arrived in Kitwe in 1936 just after the first ever miners’
strike in 1935 which had resulted in the army being
deployed and the striker miners dispersed with force and
with miners being shot dead or wounded in Luanshya at the
Roan Antelope Mine.
Katilungu observed the poor working conditions of the
miners and being was far better educated than your average
miner at the time, he immediately realised the need for a
trade union. Around that same time, he made a life-long
friend. A Lozi Prince, the son of a Litunga and a future
Litunga, Godwin Mbikusita-Lewanika. Unwittingly the
militancy of white underground workers and artisans and
their successful formation of a Union and their successful
strike, led very directly to the creation of a counterpart
among the African miners.
At the time, the intellectual capability of the Africans
was much derided and underestimated. People like Godwin
Mbikusita-Lewanika and Katilungu who worked in
supervisory or clerical work in the mines had the
opportunity to closely observe how a Union was formed and
how a strike was organised and how labour negotiations
were carried out during the strike of the white miners.
The African miners very quickly absorbed those
lessons and implemented their own strike in 1940 months

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after the white miners had won their own strike against the
mines. The government once again resorted to massive force
in order to intimidate the mines. The British were in the
middle of World War II, a life and death struggle with Nazi
Germany and a strike in an industry that produced a strategic
material, copper, that was used in the manufacture of
electrical equipment and ammunition could not be
countenanced. 17 Miners died in the bloody confrontation.
However, the African miners were not deterred. They
were resolved to form a Union come what may. The African
miners presented a problem for the Mine Owners. The
miners came from all over Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland,
Southern Rhodesia and even Tanganyika (the Mwachusa).
They were originally housed in tribal barracks and were
segregated by tribe. The mines tried to use the tribal system
to control the miners. This did not work. When the miners
were moved out of the barracks into housing it was no
longer possible to allocate them housing on tribal basis.
Around that time, Godwin Mbikusita-Lewanika, who
was what would be called today a human resource officer
catering for the African miners, began the Northern
Rhodesian African Welfare Association which eventually
became the African National Congress from which sprang
UNIP and thus the two main African parties that fought for
Independence.
In 1947, the Labour government in the UK decided
that the Africans in the British Empire needed to learn how
to organise trade unions. The man they sent out to Northern
Rhodesia was a red headed Scotsman called William
Comrie. He arrived in Kitwe and was assigned an interpreter
called Matthew Deluxe Nkoloma, a short nattily dressed

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man whose over confidence and aggressiveness frequently
led to confrontations with the colonial authorities.
Matthew Deluxe Nkoloma, was a pioneer of the
Northern Rhodesian trade union movement and he was to
immortalise the red headed Scotsman by naming his son
after him. He has been recognised by the independent nation
of Zambia. Mathew Nkoloma has several roads, a stadium
and even a ward named after him. He together with
Lawrence Katilungu quickly contacted the prominent men in
the various mining towns and from a membership of less
than ten in 1947 had created the African Mine Workers
Union (AMWU) with 19,000 members by 1949.
The prominent men Nkoloma and Katilungu co-opted
included notable men like Godwin Mbikusita-Lewanika,
Alfred Chambeshi, and Robinson Chekwe Puta. The union
grew very fast and despite the opposition of the Mine
Owners very quickly made itself felt.
The Northern Rhodesian Mine Workers Union, which
represented the 6,000 white mine workers, was so alarmed at
this new union and actually in a move that was incredible in
those day where white people rarely worked with black
people as equals in Northern Rhodesia, offered to allow
African miners to join it.
Meanwhile the Mine Owners began a divide and rule
strategy, creating a category of African workers called
Senior Staff and an even higher one called Advanced
Africans. Thy lived in better housing enjoyed better working
conditions. This backfired as they were considered traitors
and were given the derisory nickname, “ba Makobo” the
big-headed people. The separate housing areas for these
people were call ku Makobo, the area where ba Makobo
live. It was also the areas where the few African graduates

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and professionals lived. Some of these areas were Skyways
in Ndola, Orchard in Mufulira, ku Makobo in Kalulushi,
Ndeke Miseshi in Kitwe.
To further these divisions and separate the rank and
file from the more intellectual Africans, they created the
African Staff Associations hoping to thereby divide and
dilute the power of the AMWU. The AMWU’s first
operation was to dismantle the Tribal Associations and the
Tribal Representatives in the compounds. They forced a
referendum on the issue and the Mine Owners tried every
trick in the book to keep the Tribal Representatives and
Associations. The AMWU won. It was not even close. 82%
of the miners voted to abolish the Tribal Associations.
In 1950, the first of many strikes and boycotts began
and the approach of the AMWU was strategic. Applying the
Bemba saying “ngaulefwaya pwele kulomba ikanga” i.e. if
you want a pigeon ask for a guinea fowl, they began to make
demands and to demonstrate their power. By 1955,
Katilungu could bring the Northern Rhodesian economy to
its knees. Out of 47,000 African miners, 40,000 were
unionised. He could by simply calling a strike stop the flow
of copper and shake the finances of the mining companies.
When Katilungu called the miners out on strike the
mines came to a halt. The mines put on a brave face and
tried to claim production was normal. Katilungu simply took
reporters to observe the smelter waste being poured out on
what is now called the black mountain. This normally was
done every evening. It was easy to see that the daily pour
during the strike was much smaller than normal. Something
like one tenth the normal volume. In short, the miners by
striking had cut the revenue of the mines by 90 per cent.

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 The union had under Katilungu’s guidance carefully
prepared for the strike. The miners had piled up canned
foods, had all dug backyard gardens and had stocked up on
kapenta, beans and dry fish. They were in it for the long
haul.
The mines decided to consult the best anthropologists
and psychologist who knew Africans well or so they
claimed. They consulted Stellenbosch University and were
informed that Africans were incapable of joint action and
were tribalists and would not be united. They said African
leadership tended to be dictatorial and selfish. They could
easily be bought off and sell their members down the river.
Applying the advice from the best experts at Stellenbosch
the mines tried to divide the union membership from its
miners using bribes and threats. It failed. Katilungu held the
union together.
It was a shock for the mining companies to find the
miners were united and well organised. It was even more
shocking that the miners unions negotiated and operated like
the Europeans. They talked to reporters, gave press
conferences and all in all managed to stay ahead in the
public relations battle. Support poured in from Unions
abroad. The miners lived on a diet of canned food, beans,
dry fish and kapenta.
After massive losses for the mines and a three-month
strike compromise was reached. A salary increase was given
and best of all the miners got a share of the mine profits as
annual bonuses. The very next year however there was more
labour unrest. In the period of July to September 1956,
Katilungu and his leadership subjected the mines to
lightning three or two day strikes to hammer more
concessions out of the mines. This caused a State of

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Emergency to be declared in mid September and both the
Union and African National Congress leaders were arrested
and exiled some even as far as Southern Rhodesia.
Eventually the Federal Government had to negotiate, and it
released Katilungu and brought him back to bring an end to
the strikes. He negotiated a modest salary increase but the
radicals in the unions were unhappy with Katilungu. They
felt he was too ready to compromise.
1957 was a bumper year for the mines. Annual
bonuses were huge as much as one year’s pay for some and
Katilungu became a hero of the miners. However, in the
background a struggle was developing within the Union and
with the political activists who were agitating for
Independence. In the Union the struggle was between
Katilungu on one side and Nkoloma his General Secretary
and Robinson Puta on the other.
Katilungu was of the view that the Unions were not
political and should stick to getting better conditions, equal
treatment and breaking of the colour bar and racism.
Nkoloma and Puta were of the view that political freedom
was an absolute necessity and that the labour unions were a
political force for change.
This dichotomy caused strong ructions within the
Union. Katilungu was called a Judas and an Uncle Tom.
Katilungu was particularly at loggerheads with the radical
wing of the African National Congress that broke away to
eventually become UNIP.
The competition was also over talent. The Union
leaders were experienced organisers and had a strong local
following in their local towns and as a consequence were co-
opted into UNIP. The results were a direct clash with
Katilungu. Katilungu was now fighting for the establishment

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of a Trade Union Congress, a federation of all the Trade
Unions and he was quite consciously trying to keep the
Unions firmly out of politics and more into fighting for
improving the lives of their members.

When UNIP came into being it clashed directly with

the Unions led by Katilungu and it worked directly to oust
Katilungu. A vicious struggle ensued between UNIP and
Katilungu. In 1960 Katilungu was ousted and replaced by
his erstwhile comrades like Nkoloma who were now firmly
in the UNIP camp.
Katilungu blamed this on Kaunda and joined politics
with the African National Congress and immediately began
to organise ANC on the Copperbelt and in Northern
Province. The great respect the miners had for Katilungu
and the fact he was a Bemba royal, gave Katilungu
influence. It was his influence for instance that caused
Kankoyo in Mufulira to become an ANC stronghold right in
the middle of what was thought to be the UNIP hinterland.
In 1961 when Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula had to go to
prison, Katilungu took over as President. With
vigorous energy and strong organisational skills, he
undertook tours of the country.
Katilungu had a strong anti KK message. He said KK
was a foreigner from Nyasaland and not Zambian at all. He
called KK a “quasi Bemba”. He said like God in the bible he
was a jealous god who guarded his people and message
closely. The truth was Katilungu blamed UNIP for his loss
of control of the Unions.
Lawrence Chola Katilungu died in a car crash in 1961.
UNIP never let up in its anti Katilungu message. However,
he was to be proved right. Kaunda and his Bemba childhood

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friends split. The men Katilungu recruited to start the union
like Puta, Chambeshi who later went against him when he
tried to keep the unions out of politics, were ironically to
turn against UNIP to be part of the opposition to Kaunda to
coalesce around Kapwepwe. Furthermore, the Mine
Workers Union remained a potent political force. It named
its headquarters after Lawrence Katilungu. The Trade Union
Congress Katilungu formed had its headquarters in the
building owned by an insurance and savings firm started by
Comrie the labour organiser who helped Nkoloma and
Katilungu form the Miners Union. It not only invested in his
insurance company, but it later bought the building from
him when he retired.

FREDERICK TITUS JACOB CHILUBA

Biographers differ about where and when Frederick

Jacob Titus Chiluba was born. Even his names have raised

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controversy. Chiluba’s background had been such a thorny
issue, that in the 1996 case of Lewanika and others v.
Frederick Chiluba the Supreme Court of Zambia was invited
to make a ruling on who was Chiluba’s father and where
Chiluba himself was born. Before the court were three
possible fathers: a Mr. Chabala Kafupi (a Zambian who
claimed Congolese descent), a Mr Zahare (a Mozambican),
or a Mr. Chiluba Nkonde (from Kawambwa) whom
President Frederick Chiluba himself statutorily declared to
have been his father.
As for his place of birth, the court heard several
conflicting accounts. According to Dr. John Mwanakatwe,
Chiluba was born at Musangu Village in Luapula Province.
Another account declared that he was born at Wusakili in
Kitwe. Some petitioners in the case of Lewanika and Others
even claimed that Frederick Chiluba may have been born at
Chibambo CMML Mission Hospital in what was then the
Belgian Congo. When called to testify about Chiluba’s
background in the same court case, William Banda told the
court that Frederick Chiluba who was then known as simply
Titus Mpundu lived in Mufulira and spoke a Congolese
dialect of Lingala.
The court dismissed William Banda’s testimony and
ruled in this case that regardless of who was Chiluba’s
father, or where he was born, Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba
was still a legitimate Head of State and was a citizen of the
Republic of Zambia.
But according to what FTJ narrated to me, he was born
on April 30, 1943 to Jacob Titus Chiluba Nkonde and Diana
Kaimba and grew up in Kitwe, Zambia. Chiluba has married
twice. Frederick Chiluba did his secondary school education
at Kawambwa Secondary School in Kawambwa, where he

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was expelled in the second year for political activities. He
became co-boy and later a bus conductor. It was there that
he found his ability to become a politician due to his
charismatic personality. He later worked as city councillor
before becoming an accounts assistant at Atlas Copco, and
rose in his rankings, in Ndola where he joined the National
Union of Building.
Chiluba had no rich family history. In death, his father
still remains as mysterious as when he was alive. His place
of birth is still subject to speculation. The fact that as a
young boy he was expelled from a Kawambwa School also
shows the kind of limitations that the young Chiluba faced
growing up. In a society that looks down upon short statured
people, it is clear that his height too could have one of those
drawbacks. But the story of Chiluba is a story of inspiration
in spite of limitations.
Here a man without High School education worked
hard as a bus conductor to read a few A Level courses which
he later admitted to have flanked. Additionally, not to be
outdone by his many challenges, Chiluba went as far as
Tanzania looking for opportunities. When he came back to
Zambia in his twenties, he translated the knowledge he
acquired while working in the Tanzanian Sisal industry into
good use. He used his courageousness and his fearlessness
to become a defender of his fellow workers. Through the
trade union, a diminutive Chiluba had found an opportunity
to talk and walk the tallest.
When Kenneth Kaunda legislated that all trade unions
would be amalgamated and controlled from one umbrella
body, little did he know that one of the leaders that would
use this umbrella body to oust him was Frederick Chiluba.
Indeed Chiluba used and enjoyed the visibility that his

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stature gave him. And as an outspoken member of the
unions, it was just natural that the Zambia Congress of Trade
Unions would appoint him its leader. The leadership
position he held until 1991 when he was elected president of
the Republic.
During Chiluba’s tenure at ZCTU Kaunda made
several overtures to have Chiluba appointed into Cabinet.
However, to his credit Chiluba refused. A man from a poor
background was not quick to jump into the opportunities of
richness. He did not want to abandon his fight for the
workers in order to eat noble bread at Kaunda’s table.
Chiluba, a figure of modest history demonstrated to Kaunda
that he was a man of steel, and not even Kaunda could bend
him. In 1990, Kaunda wanted to exploit Chiluba’s history.
He claimed that Chiluba’s history is questionable. To this
Chiluba simply responded, “I am surprised that President
Kaunda claims that he does not know me…I am surprised
that Kaunda claims that I have a questionable
background…I am the one whom he wanted to make
Minister of Labour, but I said no, Sir!” With these words,
Frederick Chiluba demonstrated to Zambians that he had not
been dented by Kaunda’s corruption and therefore was ready
to lead the Third Republic.
In 1990, choosing a leader for the MMD was not an
easy deed. But all sections of the MMD united around
Frederick Chiluba. Even many academics in the movement
acknowledged the intelligence and brilliance of Chiluba.
Chiluba acquired this brilliance, neither in the walls of the
classroom nor in the decors of laboratories but rather on the
street. It is this courage, this education, and this street
wisdom that made Frederick Chiluba fit to lead Zambia’s
new political party.

[187]
 And in consistency with his predecessor, one of the
first acts of the presidency was Christian commitment. For
Kaunda, three months in power in January 1965, he
launched the United Church of Zambia, calling it a “national
edifice.” For Chiluba, three months in power he addressed a
prayer meeting at State House where he renounced
corruption and witchcraft and declared Zambia as a
Christian nation. This 1991 declaration of Zambia as a
Christian nation is perhaps one of the most far reaching
decisions that would long linger in history.
Chiluba was a fighter for worker’s rights as a union
leader. He was incorruptible. He refused several of
Kaunda’s overtures at corruption. He stood for principles.
But history will ponder when he started entertaining
excesses. The fact that, after his presidency in 2001, he was
found to have had hundreds and hundreds of custom made
suits, shoes, and underwear stands contrary to a Chiluba of
the 1980s. In death, Zambia should continue to reflect on
what may have gone wrong and on how a champion of the
poor became so excessive.
If Chiluba defined himself as a political engineer, this
was true in practice as it was in theory. A man who failed A’
Levels could still make it in academia. It was Warwick
University that saw the potential in Frederick Chiluba and
gave him a chance to enrol for a Master of Philosophy
Degree. In his dissertation entitled “Democracy: The
Challenge of Change” Chiluba explained political theory
and committed himself to leave the presidency after he had
served 2 terms. He was critical of the “President for Life”
syndrome. But a few years before his second term was to
expire, it appeared that he too was falling prey to the African
disease and a Third Term started to infect a few of his close

[188]
associates including his party secretary Michael Chilufya
Sata.
To his credit however, Chiluba kept his word and left
office after ten years. His political geniuses led him to
sidestep his popular former vice-presidents Godfrey
Miyanda, Christon Tembo, and national secretary Sata to
appoint a political nemesis Levy Mwanawasa as his
successor. This decision would haunt him for years to come.
Chiluba, a 1980s champion of workers’ rights and a
1990s champion of liberal democracy was under the
Mwanawasa administration answering charges of theft. His
six-year trial is as much part of his legacy as his other years.
No doubt that some Zambians will remember Frederick
Jacob Titus Chiluba for the charges of corruption he faced
more than for the good things he did while in office. The
pain of those charges and the embarrassment they brought
against his personal integrity has been discussed by many.
After leaving office, Chiluba was a target of
Mwanawasa's campaign against corruption: in February
2003, he was charged along with his former intelligence
chief, Xavier Chungu, and several former ministers and
senior officials, with 168 counts of theft totalling more than
$40m.
It was alleged that money was diverted from the
Ministry of Finance into an account held at the London
branch of the Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco).
Chiluba said the account was used by the country's
intelligence services to fund operations abroad. Investigators
said it was a slush fund, used to meet Chiluba and Chungu's
private and personal expenses.

[189]
 Most of the charges that were made against him were
later dropped, but others remained. In addition, his wife
Regina was arrested for receiving stolen goods.
In early 2006, Chiluba was flown to South Africa for
medical attention for a heart condition. After resisting the
government's call for him to return to Zambia for what they
termed as long-term treatment, he returned on July 15.
On 4 May 2007 he was found guilty of stealing US$46
million in a civil case by a UK court. London high court
judge Peter Smith accused Chiluba of shamelessly
defrauding his people and flaunting his wealth with an
expensive wardrobe of "stupendous proportions". He also
castigated his lawyer, Iqbal Meer, saying "I am satisfied that
no honest solicitor in his position would have done what he
did." His unquestioning acceptance of the money -
transferred to a London bank account by the Zambian
intelligence service - was "classic blind eye dishonesty". An
appeal against the ruling was allowed by the court of appeal
in 2008.
Chiluba, however, continued to plead innocence and
refused to recognise the verdict of the Judge Peter Smith
who he accused of having been bribed by the Mwanawasa
government. It is yet to be seen what effect the civil ruling in
the UK will have on the criminal proceedings in the
Zambian courts. According to Chiluba the judgement in the
UK has rendered the criminal proceedings in Zambia
academic by heavily prejudicing his case.
On 7 June, the amount, which Chiluba was ordered to
repay, was increased to $58 million, accounting for interest
and legal costs. Several days later, Judge Smith ordered
Chiluba to leave his home in Lusaka within two weeks

[190]
because it was judged to have been bought with money
stolen from the public.
Chiluba collapsed on 24 May 2007 due to heart
trouble and was hospitalized. He was released from the
hospital on 29 May 2007, and on 30 May 2007 doctors
judged him to be fit to stand trial on the embezzlement
charges following an examination. On 31 May 2007, a court
ruled that his trial should proceed, although his lawyers
argued that it should not due to his poor health. The judge
rejected arguments from Chiluba's lawyers and doctors that
the former president is too sick to face prosecution over
graft charges. On 27 July 2007 he was flown to South Africa
to be treated for heart trouble; this had been approved by the
government earlier in the month. He was scheduled to
appear in court for his trial on 14 August 2007, and he
returned to Zambia on 11 August 2007, saying in an
interview that he was "surviving on God's will". His
spokesman Emmanuel Mwamba said that his illness made it
uncertain whether he would appear in court; in July, it was
ruled that, if necessary, Chiluba would participate in the trial
through video or a judge would go to his home. On 14
August 2007, Chiluba rejected the idea of participating in
the trial through video, saying that it would be illegal.
After appearing briefly in court on 14 August 2007,
Chiluba was present for the resumption of trial proceedings
on 15 August, 2007 Chiluba took breaks during the day for
health reasons. Chiluba's wife Regina was arrested on
September 3 for allegedly receiving money and property
stolen by Chiluba during his time in office, despite having
previously been released after the case against her had been
dropped on August 24, 2007. Chiluba and his wife protested
the arrest. In May 2008, the government announced that it

[191]
had recovered nearly 60 million dollars in money and assets
allegedly stolen during Chiluba's presidency. Having long
suffered from health problems, Mwanawasa died later in
2008. Chiluba was acquitted on all charges on 17 August
2009.
Chiluba's relationship with President Mwanawasa and
the MMD soured badly after he was charged with
corruption. He backed Mwanawasa's main opponent,
Michael Sata, in the 2006 presidential election. After
Mwanawasa's death in 2008, Vice-President Rupiah Banda
succeeded him and Chiluba's fortunes improved markedly.
Chiluba was acquitted in 2009-a decision that Sata alleged
was "engineered" by Banda-and President Banda refused to
allow the state to appeal the verdict or pursue the matter
further. Chiluba announced in January 2010 that he was
supporting Banda for re-election in 2011, while also
criticizing the main opposition leaders. Transparency
International argued that Chiluba was endorsing Banda "so
that he can be guaranteed his freedom", and Sata was
similarly critical: "Chiluba will do anything possible to
ensure that his friend remains in power.
Dr Chiluba died on 18 June 2011, five minutes after
midnight. May his soul rest in peace, even in death his
legacy still lives on.

TIMOTHY MWABA WALAMBA

[192]
 Timothy Mwaba Walamba, also known to his friends
such as Dr FTJ Chiluba as nkailwila (I will fight alone), was
born on the 14th of October, 1938, in Kasumpa village chief
Kanyembo’s area in Nchelenge district of Luapula province.
His father Titus Mulenga Walamba was a miner on the
copper belt; as a result, he did his sub A and B in Mufurila at
Mufurila Mine School, and later moved with his parents to
the village in 1949 where he did his standard 1 and 2.
In 1950 his parents came back to the copper belt, when
his father joined Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines,
where he started standard 3. He completed his lower primary
school up to standard 4 in 1952. He then went to upper
primary school from 1953 to 1955.

[193]
 During the colonial period, there was no serious
educational policy to educate the black Africans; as a result
there was an acute scarcity of schools especially at
secondary level. The whole Zambia only had two secondary
schools, namely: Munali secondary school and Chikuni
secondary school. Later, Lukashya secondary school was
opened in Northern Province, and Kasama to be specific.
Mr. John Mwanakatwe was the first black secondary school
principal. From 1956 to 1958, Timothy Walamba did his
junior secondary that is from form 1 to 2 at Lukashya
secondary school. Upon completion in 1959, he went to
Chililabombwe and joined Bancroft Mines now Konkola
Copper Mines. Timothy Walamba has spent nearly all his
adult life as an active participant in the political affairs of
Zambia and other matters pertaining to the welfare of the
Zambian citizenry:

As A Freedom Fighter:

In 1958, at the young age of 20 years, he joined the

only progressive political party then, the United Nation
Independent Party (UNIP). He was responsible for
mobilizing members in the party and sensitizing the general
public to understand their God-given human rights, and the
need to fight for their birth right to govern themselves.
Owing to his active participation in politics he was
suspected to be the one of those who burnt the post office in
Chililabombwe. This marked his first arrest by the colonial
authorities in 1960, and was jailed for 6 months in Ndola at
Bwana Mukubwa prison, also known as Yengwe. When he
came out of prison in 1961, he had lost his job, therefore he
moved to Mufurila where he got employment as Sports and

[194]
Recreation officer at Butondo in Mufurila west. He was the
first youth branch chairman in UNIP.
There was a heavy cost to pay for opposing the
colonial government, but this did not deter Walamba from
standing for what he religiously held sacred: the liberation of
Zambians from the monstrous British colonial masters.
Zambia then Northern Rhodesia was humorously referred to
as the British Protectorate, little did the colonialists know
that it was them who needed protection as the wind of
change was soon to blow away the iniquities of imperialism.
Walamba was always at the helm of political agitation,
during the colonial era, when the post office was set ablaze
at Kashimbaya Post Office in section 18, the authorities did
not hesitate to arrest him, since he had earlier been convicted
on similar charges, and he was put in jail for 1 year. When
he came out of jail in 1962, he had lost his job. Therefore he
decided to go to Chililabombwe where he was employed as
an underground miner until 1966, when he was taken to
Nkana Division and trained for 1 year as a winding engine
operator, which was purely meant for whites at the time.
There was a wind of change in the mining industry, and the
union demanded for the Zambianisation of the mining
industry.
As A Unionist:
The persecution and torture Timothy Walamba
suffered at the hands of the colonial master did not deter his
aspiration to better the lives of the Zambian people, but
shaped him into a fearless and courageous Politician, if
anything it gave him more reason to fight oppression.
As a result of the leadership acumen and patriotism he
exhibited, he was elected as vice chairman at the branch in
1966 in Chililabombwe of the Mine Workers Union of

[195]
Zambia (MUZ). And in 1967, he was one of the first
Zambians to take over from the whites; it was during the
same year that he was elected Constituency secretary of
UNIP. Walamba served in the mining industry for a total of
32 years, and as a miner rose to the position of personnel
Officer, in charge of townships. During this period he was
active in the politics of the mine workers union. His
outstanding performance won him re-election for 8 years,
until 1976 when he was elected as Deputy National
Chairman or Vice President of the Mine Workers Union of
Zambia (MUZ), a position he held for a period of 5 years, up
to the time he was elected as national chairman in 1982 after
defeating David Mwila in Ndola by 51 votes to 37 votes.
Despite being a member of the United Nation
Independent party, it did not compromise his obligation to
the plight of the workers. Walamba vociferously fought for
the mine workers and the Zambian people during Kaunda’s
undemocratic one party state. As National Chairman, the
Mine Workers Union of Zambia scored the following to
improve the conditions of service and general welfare:
i. Establishment of the Mukuba Pension Scheme
ii. Introduction of free Mealie-meal to workers
iii. Introduction of education allowance
iv. Introduction of mid-month advances for miners
v. Loans for bicycles and vehicles
vi. Funeral expenses
vii. Repatriation allowance
viii. Home allowance
As a Diplomat
On 11 Th May 2013, H.E. Michael Sata sworn in
Timothy Walamba as high commissioner to Ghana in
recognition of his contributions to the struggles for

[196]
liberation and the labour movement. Part of his legacy as a
diplomat was that he helped strengthen bilateral relations
between Zambia and Ghana. As High Commissioner of
Zambia to Ghana he lauded the bold and decisive steps
taken by the government of Ghana to halt the influx of
illegal and foreign miners into the small scale mining sector
in the country.
Ambassador Walamba revealed that he came under
immense pressure from his government to understudy the
campaign conducted by Ghana's Inter-Ministerial Taskforce
against illegal Mining to enable him advice Zambian
authorities on strategies to curtail the influx of illegal Indian
miners into the country's mining industry.
After saving for 4 years in the foreign mission,
Timothy Walamba fell on bad luck as his age did not favour
his health, after undergoing an operation, he started
experiencing difficulties climbing stairs to his office which
was at the third floor, as per advice from his doctor and
family, he requested to be recalled from foreign mission.
Although the President H.E. Edgar Lungu suggested that he
be moved at least to the mission in Namibia, Walamba
insisted that he had had enough and need to be home with
his family away from any tedious, as result he was recalled
in 2017 and appointed as a board member to National
Saving and Credit Bank were at the time of writing this book
he was still saving. In an interview with him he spoke highly
of President Lungu, and humorously stated that whenever
the President visited the Copperbelt they always shared light
moments over a glass of wine.

[197]
Ambassador TM Walamba with H.E. Edgar Chagwa Lungu
Timothy Walamba will be remembered for his
veracious defense for the plight of the workers as a labour
leader. He was never afraid to assert his mind and speak for
the oppressed workers in an epoch when opposing the
colonial rule was unthought-of although his attacks on
oppression frequently sent him to prison, he proudly states
that if he has no regret for dedicating his life to fighting for
the poor and exploited workers.

NEWSTEAD ZIMBA

[198]
 Newstead Zimba was born on February 9, 1937, in
Lundazi, Eastern Province, near the Malawi border.
Educated from 1950 to 1956 at Eliphase Elementary School,
Mankaka Primary School, Mwase Middle School and
Chasefu Upper School. In 1957 he went to Katete Secondary
School.
After a teacher training course at Katete he began
teaching in 1959 at Kaloko Primary School and moved in
1962 to Fibobe Primary School. In 1965 he went to Ndola
Main School where he became headmaster in 1967.
As a member of the United National Independence
Party from 1960 and a member of the NUT since 1962, he

[199]
has always been active on the political front. In 1971 he
became full-time president of the NUT and later that year
acting president of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions.
He attended a conference of the International Labour
Organisation at Geneva.
His forthright and, occasionally, brash style brought
him into early conflict with the Minister of Labour and
Social Services, Wilson Chakulya. On July 14, 1972,
Chakulya accused him of stirring up trouble between the
workers and the government by “repeated Press outbursts”
and incitement to strike. Chakulya said: “It is a pity that his
mouth is getting a little too big and the earlier he shuts up
the better.” But Zimba with full backing from his members
shrugs off such attacks.
Newstead Zimba will best be remembered
controversial trade union boss from the National Union of
Teachers, often in clashes with the government. Not afraid
to take on cabinet ministers even when they warn him to
“shut up”. His vigorous defense of workers' rights has
sometimes shown the government to be inept over industrial
relations and at other times has exposed the unions’
weakness in collective bargaining. Off-duty he is an ardent
football fan and a keen filmgoer.

MR. COSMAS MUKUKA

[200]
 He was born on 4Th August, 1967, upon completion his
secondary school he wanted to go to missionary seminary to
study theology. But situations compelled him to study
education; he joined the teaching profession in the mid-
1990s as a primary school teacher. And later joined Zambia
National Union of Teachers and rose to the rank of a district
leader for Lusaka. Being trained as a primary school teacher
who had experienced firsthand the inequalities that existed
between primary teachers and secondary teachers in terms of
and conditions of service, he was compelled to begin his
advocacy of improved working conditions for primary
school teachers. He began this advocacy with his colleague
Paddy Chisala who at the time had retired from the teaching
service.

[201]
 In 1998 Mr. Mukuka pioneered the registration of the
Primary Teachers Union of Zambia which was recognized in
2000 and later became known as Basic Education Teachers
Union of Zambia in 2004, when primary schools were
transformed into Basic Schools. Mr Mukuka was voted as
the first General Secretary at Chibombo quadrennial
conference in 2000, taking over from the interim Mr. Paddy
Chisala. He worked as General Secretary until 2011; the
congress elected him as Deputy Secretary General for
Administration for ZCTU and was later voted as Secretary
General in 2015 to 2018.
He holds the position of Senior National Trustee for
Basic Education Union of Zambia, he also held the position
of President for BETUZ from 2011 to 2019 April. During
his tenure of office he led the teaching bargaining team and
some the achievements attributed to his leadership are as
follows:
Equal pay for equal prior to the formation of BETUZ
primary school teachers were paid lesser than secondary
school teachers notwithstanding their qualifications. This led
to a certain amount of stigmatization that made those at
Primary feel inferior.
Lifecycle conditions of service this implied that the
longer one served in the public service he was rewarded
with an increase in salary notches and improved conditions
of service.
Consolidation of remunerative allowances into basic
pay, some of the allowances that were remunerative in
nature were consolidated into the basic pay to allow workers
enjoy the following; higher pension contributions which
leads to higher terminal benefits; increased capacity for
borrowing;

[202]
 There has been over whelming debate on the medical
insurance scheme as to whether it is a gain or loss after been
overtaken by the medical bill which provides for universal
health coverage for every citizen. The question is whether
taking away of the condition of service is gain or loss.
Funeral insurance scheme provides social security for
the working class as money is managed by the fund manager
to take care of bereavements as opposed to funeral grants
which was given at the rate of K600 with a standard coffin
for the principal, spouse and dependents replaced by the
funeral insurance scheme which pays as follows Division 3:
K9000; Division 2: K 15,000 and Division 1: K25, 000.
Mr. Mukuka Cosmas is also a political activist and has
contributed to debate on matters of national interest. For
instance when the nation was divided on the nationality of
the incumbent president Lungu, Mr. Mukuka called for an
end to such unproductive debate as it was apt to put the
nation into turmoil.

EPILOGUE

The labour movement since time immemorial has been

pivotal in pursuing the plight and welfare of the workers and
society as a whole, for instance in Zambia the struggle for
liberation from imperialism, the fight for decent conditions

[203]
of service during colonial rule and the reintroduction of
democracy could have been delayed if it had not been for the
heroic role that the labour movement played.
Since its inception in 1966, ZCTU has been at the
forefront of advocating for organised workers’ rights in
Zambia and has made significant strides in the last fifty
years in Labour law formulation, promotion of social
security and occupation health and safety, and has been a
firm supporter of gender equality, speaking against
unacceptable forms of work for all workers.
The announcement that the ZCTU and FFTUZ have
agreed to start the process of merging should not be mere
rhetorical declaration but instead reconcile personal and
selfish interests with the collective interests of the workers
who have stood out to be the biggest losers in the current tug
of war between ZCTU and FFTUZ. It is evident that unity of
purpose and direction in today’s labour movement in
Zambia has been lost. The biggest challenge that the labour
movement therefore, faces today more than any other period
is to regain that unity.
Both ZCTU and FFTUZ have a major role to play in
this struggle so that divisive instruments of the labour
movement can be fought on a level playing ground with a
strong voice of workers solidarity.
Today the question is asked as to whether the trade
unions in the 21St century are a loss or gain. Further it is
asked whether the unions are still relevant in the 21 St
century.
There are those who believe that unions are important
because they give workers a voice in a world dominated by
powerful employers, securing better wages and treatment for
employees, particularly as technology threatens many trades

[204]
with redundancy. Higher wages for the masses equals more
spending, and thus a healthier economy, they say.
On the opposite side of the fence, others believe that
unions are economy-ruining, corrupt organizations that
misuse members’ funds for political ends, increase prices for
the masses by fighting for wage rises for a few, and push
companies out of business with unfair demands.
Others say that unions, good or bad, are no longer
needed because legal protections for workers have
improved. But the counter argument is that many of these
protections may not have existed had unions not forced
governments’ hands to act against companies trying to ride
roughshod over workers’ rights.
The failure of many unions to respond to these changes
has further diminished their power. Few manage to appeal to
younger workers or those who are self-employed or work
part-time. Faced with declining membership figures, some
unions have joined forces with others in an attempt to be
more effective.
Trade unions have a number of pros or advantages in a
state. Firstly, it is generally argued that unions increase the
standard of living for everyone; they set the standard of
living. When union wages increase, so does the standard of
living, which in turn increases wages in non-union
workplaces. Unions have kept the middle class afloat. When
union jobs decrease, so does the middle class. When the
middle class prospers so does the economy. Therefore,
unions are beneficial to the economy.
Every society has different voices that call attention to
various problems affecting it. Trade or labour unions are a
distinctive voice in society meant to highlight the plight of
workers and also to raise awareness on various ills. Other

[205]
than the economic aspect, labour unions are also concerned
with social and political affairs.
Upon their formation in Zambia, they represented an
integral part of the freedom struggle and fought side by side
with political parties before independence to ensure the
promotion of economic and social justice. In Zambia, the
earliest piece of legislation to regulate the activities of trade
unions was the Trade Unions and Trade Disputes Act of
1964.
In 1971, this Act was repealed and replaced with the
Industrial Relations Act which did not become operational
until 1974. In 1990, the Act was again repealed leading to
the introduction of another Industrial Relations Act and then
in 1993, the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD)
repealed the Industrial Relations Act of 1990 and in its
place, the Industrial and Labour Relations Act was
introduced.
According to Zambia Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) General Secretary Cosmas Mukuka, labour
movements have played a critical role in the development of
Zambia. They have not only been concerned with helping
raise the living standards of workers but have also been
instrumental in the fight for good governance. In 1990 when
there was advocacy for the return to multi-party politics,
trade unions played a significant role at the time.
Furthermore, trade unions have also been advocates for
social justice, social security and poverty reduction. ZCTU
was established by an amendment to the Trade Unions and
Trade Disputes Act (TUTDA) of 1964. All the subsequent
and successive Acts have retained the statutory proclamation
of the ZCTU with variations as to its powers.

[206]
 The introduction of plural politics in 1990 in Zambia
was used as a major drive to justify the liberalisation of the
labour movement by the government of former President
Kenneth Kaunda. Dr Kaunda had admitted publicly in 1970
that the bargaining strength of trade unions is undermined by
the proliferation of trade unions.
However in 1990, there was a major policy shift when
trade unions assumed the duty of competing for membership
through the backing of the law which allowed the
proliferation of trade unions within industries in keeping
with the spirit of liberalisation.
However, this proliferation has presented a challenge
in the operations of trade unions. Previously, there was a law
that permitted only one union per industry but now there can
be more than one and this has its own challenges arising
from the different members. The main challenge affecting
them today is that with time, there have been changes in
how unions have to relate with the government.
Under the one-party state system, it was easier for
members to organise themselves as there was only one
political party representing the needs and aspirations of all
Zambians.
It is not easy to have the kind of relationship between
trade unions and government that existed during the one-
party state because of the different political affiliations.
Members belong to different political parties and have
different interests.
Additionally, some employers are not friendly towards
trade unions which have made the recruitment of members
difficult. With low membership, it becomes challenging for
workers to organise themselves and additional sensitization
must be done to woe more members.

[207]
 Worth noting is the fact that the MMD was strongly
opposed to the 1990 Industrial Relations Act introduced by
the United National Independence Party (UNIP) government
as it was perceived to be divisive of the labour movement.

The 1990 legislation did not place any restrictions on

trade union formation and registration, but the 1993
Industrial Relations Act, introduced by the MMD, stated that
no union could be registered within an industry where
another union existed unless it was shown that such a union
was intended to represent a specific trade or profession.
This invited broad interpretations and has led to a
liberal registration of trade unions on the basis that they are
distinctly professional and that the existing trade unions
cannot sufficiently represent such members.
The 1993 legislation also made affiliation to the ZCTU
optional which divided the labour movement in Zambia
because of the option of disaffiliation from and non-
affiliation to the ZCTU.
This gave rise to cracks within existing groups and the
formation of fragmented unions. Such incidences have
compromised the strength of unions and have affected their
impact on government policies and influence on labour law
or policy reforms.
Unions are valuable to mutually the economy and to
the workers that fuel them. As union membership rates
decrease, middle class incomes shrink. It is believed by
union activists that a spirited middle class income is
important to the economy. This is so because unions’ help to
warranty that workers are paid fair remunerations receive
the training that helps them do their jobs well, and are
considered in the commercial decision-making process.

[208]
[209]
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