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Urafiki management, workers` stand-off rumbles on
2008-02-08 09:02:02
By Nasser Kigwangallah
The two-week saga between employees of the Tanzania-China Friendship Textile Company Limited (Urafiki) in Dar as Salaam and the factory`s management over pay rise has continued unabated.
The factory management suspended all production activities indefinitely last Friday because workers did not resume work as previously agreed, forcing it to cease all production activities until further notice.
This reporter saw hundreds of stranded workers still seated outside the factory yesterday awaiting their fate and no management official was available for comment as the gate was closed and no activities were apparently going on inside.
A notice placed on the factory\'s gate and signed by the factory`s general manager, Huang Lilian, stated that employees would be allowed back to work only after they had written letters of apologies stating their participation in the strike which started on Monday, last week, and has paralysed production at the factory, resulting in the loss of millions of shillings every day.
However, employees have rejected the management order for them to write letters of apology, arguing that would imply that what they did was wrong.
``Unless the management gives us the pay rise of 150,000/- or a genuine explanation of the factory\'s inability to pay the new salary package, no one is ready to resume work,`` said an employee who preferred to remain anonymous.
He said they were ready to be suspended altogether rather than work under exploitative conditions.
Florian Makero, secretary of the Tanzania Union of Industrial and Commercial Workers (TUICO), blamed the factory management for acting irresponsibly because negotiations were still going on before the notice demanding for written apologies was placed on the gate the day before yesterday.
He said this had further aggravated the situation and workers saw that the management was not ready for negotiations aimed at reaching an end to the
stand-off.
``We have tried our level best to resolve the situation amicably, but the management is jeopardising our efforts to calm the situation,`` Makero stated.
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