Union pulls the race card

MUN Secretary General Hengari rails against Scorpion Zinc-management: "Boting should shut up"

The simmering labor dispute at the Skorpion Zinc mine in Rosh Pinah, the relevant trade union MUN (Mineworkers Union of Namibia) has switched up a gear yesterday and attacked the management focus.

The stumbling block: the belonging to Anglo American Skorpion Zinc mine at Rosh Pinah is a thorn in the union. Windhoek / Rosh Pinah - A short-convened press conference in Windhoek went MUN general secretary Joseph Hengari here yesterday, the race card: If Scorpio Zinc, a white workers still earn significantly more than one color, the company is interested not in the affirmative-action policies and occupied at the management level almost exclusively white South Africans. Hengari urged the Commission on equality in the workplace (Employment Equity Commission), to examine these issues. At the same time, so Hengari, the Home Office should review how the South Africans had to get work permits, since the positions might be equally occupied by Namibians. De journalists present objections that apply to Scorpion Zinc government-approved exceptions, wiped Hengari off the table: "We adhere strictly to the law. . And we want no mining in the second Ramatex 'allegations, which could deter potential investors as the current strike, said the fiery trade unionist: "Investors who come only to exploit Namibian workers are not welcome."



Targeted by the union is particularly Scorpion Zinc-CEO Gerald Boting and his statements that he had been insulted by striking employees. "He and his team are trying to deceive the nation with their lies. They have little, if not done absolutely nothing to create good working relationships and conditions in Scorpio Zinc. The mine is notorious for its racial discrimination, unfairness and poor leadership, "railed Hengari. Boting should "shut up" and "change, as long as he has to have time."

Dismayed, the MUN also showed the incident from the weekend, when two strikers during a protest campaign after evacuation of the premises of rubber bullets from the gun of a security firm G4S the man had been hit. This is barbaric, and Andre Mostert, the shooter must be immediately removed from the premises because he was "dangerous" and constituted a threat.

The strike itself, which had suspended the union in the past week as well as negotiations with the management, expressed his Hengari are very scarce. However, the employee representative is indignant that Skorpion Zinc threatened the strikers with disciplinary action and suspended two workers have now. He was not willing to submit the relevant documents to the media. Just as it was "barbaric" and the continuation of the "white supremacy" that the company had decided after the interruption of the strike, all workers in the affected tariff class shut out from the company premises. "We condemn the strikers punished in this way and a witch hunt is initiated against them."

Now, at an emergency meeting of trade union, employers and the labor Commissioner Bro-Mathew Shinguadja with Labour Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko. "If it out nothing comes, then the miners are talking about - and the loud," said Hengari, who declared at the same time, the country would be all employees of the mining sector put on high alert to possibly also in support of colleagues at Scorpion Zinc to stop work.

The first strike by about 350 of the nearly 700 permanent employees had on 9 May started. Background, salary negotiations and discussions on benefits and working conditions. According to media reports, some of the strikers have now accepted an offer from the company about 12 percent more pay, housing allowance and transportation.