Unemployment is the problem with Workers Day, not unions
Four headlines on the front page of The Herald over Workers Day caught my eye:
- RBZ retrenchees stage demo
- Ethanol plant to lay off 4,500
- Infighting in labour unions blights Workers Day
- May Day a damp squib
Certainly, Workers Day has lost some of its luster. But surely this is less because of infighting in the labour unions, and more because soaring unemployment (of which RBZ and the ethanol plant are just two examples) has made being a worker – and particularly of being a worker in a formal sector job in which you are accessible to organising in the way trade unions have traditionally operated – an impossibility for the vast majority of Zimbabweans?