Mozambican trade unions cancel May Day

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Mozambican trade unions cancel May Day

9:44 CAT | 25 Mar 2020

File photo: Noticias

For the first time in the history of independent Mozambique, this year there will be no May Day parades, celebrating 1 May, International Workers’ Day.

The leaderships of both trade union federations, the OTM (Mozambican Workers’ Organisation) and CONSILMO (Confederation of Free and Independent Unions), announced on Monday that they have cancelled all preparations for May Day festivities, because of the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decision, they said, was in strict compliance with the instructions given by President Filipe Nyusi. These include a ban on all gatherings of more than 50 people.

Instead of raising traditional union demands concerning wages and working conditions, the leaderships of the two federations are urging all workers to comply with the prevention measures announced by the authorities.

The unions insist that the employers must also play a role in the fight against Covid-19. They urge all companies to ensure that bathrooms are kept in a clean and hygienic condition, and are not used by more people than recommended. They also demanded the suspension of the use of breathalysers, since they pass through the mouths of many people.

The unions also urged the employers to provide their workers with means of prevention such as hand sanitising gel, and face masks, and demanded that no workers be expelled or suffer a reduction in their rights because they are infected, or are unable to come to work because of the pandemic.

One area that will not be interrupted is the negotiations on increasing the minimum wages. These talks began in the Labour Consultative Council (the negotiating forum between the government, the unions and the employers’ associations) on 18 March, and the unions insist they will continue until the results are announced in April.

Meanwhile, the potential for the coronavirus to spread in Mozambique’s overcrowded prisons is causing serious concern. The Association for the Rehabilitation of Young Prisoners (APREJOR) is proposing a general pardon for all inmates who have served at least half their sentence, in order to avoid a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

At a Maputo press conference on Monday. Serodio Towo, the chairperson of APREJOR, called for “speeding up the conditional release of prisoners who have served half their sentences”. This would require no new legislation: the authorities already have the power to grant conditional release to people who have behaved well in prison.

Towo pointed out that the Maputo provincial penitentiary has the capacity to hold 800 inmates, but currently 3,000 are crammed into this jail. Such overcrowding lays the ground for the rapid spread of disease in the prisons.

Also on Monday, President Nyusi pardoned 25 chronically ill prisoners, some in the terminal stage of their illness. While welcome, this humanitarian gestures is a drop in the ocean of the overcrowded jails.

Source: AIM