Zimbabwe Bars U.S. Union Leaders from Meeting with Injured Unionists

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/09/22/zimbabwe-bars-us-union-leaders-from-meeting-with-injured-unionists/

Zimbabwe Bars U.S. Union Leaders from Meeting with Injured Unionists

by Tula Connell, Sep 22, 2006

The Zimbabwe government refused today to allow a delegation of U.S. trade union leaders into Zimbabwe to meet with injured leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) following the brutal attack on them and their arrest on September 13.

A five-person labor delegation led by AFL-CIO Vice President William Lucy, who is Secretary Treasurer of the AFSCME, was denied entry into Zimbabwe by government officials and forced to return to South Africa. Although the ZCTU leaders and activists have been subsequently released, we are concerned for their health, continued safety and their ability to exercise their rights as trade unionists and as workers.

In a statement, the AFL-CIO constituency group the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, says:

This denial of entry to Zimbabwe is viewed by the CBTU as a desperate effort on behalf of the Zimbabwe government and the security and police forces to prevent international labor officials from seeing and understanding the dreadful conditions of the Zimbabwean economy and its impact on everyday citizens and workers.

On Sept. 13, police arrested 256 Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) activists from the more than 1,500 that gathered in Harare.

Among those arrested and beaten were the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) General Secretary Wellington Chibebe, President Lovemore Matombo and ZCTU First Vice President and SATUCC President Lucia Matibenga. Matibenga received bone fractures and serious bruises in the attack.

Read more here.

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Tags: AFSCME, CBTU, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Zimbabwe
Channels: Organizing & Bargaining