Do the under paid celebrate Workers Day?

This Saturday Zimbabweans celebrate Workers Day under the theme 'Forward Ever, Backward Never. Intensify the Workers' Struggle'. This day has a very different meaning to a Zimbabwean worker considering that most workers are not content with their salaries and not pleased with their working conditions.

As part of the celebrations, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) has arranged a march from D-Square, near Mpopoma High School, to the White City Stadium. The ZCTU Regional Officer for the Western region, Percy Mcijo, said that this year workers need to come together and deal with the various challenges that they face. He added that workers are the main creators of a nation’s wealth and therefore should get a fair share of it.

Workers have been the worst affected by country’s economic decline as most of them lost their jobs when companies liquidated because they were failing to cope with the changes in the economy. Currently, some companies are operating below 20 percent capacity and this has adverse effects on the workers as it means that they receive inadequate remuneration. Most workers working in the factories in the city have gone for months without pay and motivation. Workers are living below the poverty datum line yet the government still continues to turn a deaf ear. Such issues have led to a mass exodus of workers to the diaspora in search of greener pastures. The majority has taken to selling wares in the streets and to vending as formal employment no longer carries the same privileges it used to. If the dissatisfactions of workers are not met, development of the country will continue at a very slow pace. The government of national unity should address the concerns of workers as a matter of urgency.

Why then should underpaid workers celebrate Workers' Day? Are these celebrations merely about celebrating the fact that one wakes up every morning and goes to work or it is about celebrating that as a worker one adds to the wealth of the nation?