Accessibility links

Breaking News

U.S. Labor Organizations Spotlight 'Deteriorating' Rights In Zimbabwe


American labor unions have launched a program to highlight what they describe as the “rapidly deteriorating situation for human and workers rights in Zimbabwe."

The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, the biggest U.S. trade union organization, called a news conference in Washington on Thursday with the Coalition of Black Trade Unions, a member union, to unveil the plan.

The U.S. trade unionists have staged demonstrations at the Zimbabwean Embassy in Washington to protested the police beating of Zimbabwean labor officials September 13 following attempts to stage protests over deteriorating conditions for workers.

At Thursday's news conference, the U.S. labor officials showed video of the protests in Harare which included scenes of police arresting and beating labor officials, and interviews with some of the injured trade unionists after their release.

On September 22, Zimbabwean authorities denied entry to a delegation of U.S. labor officials led by AFL-CIO Vice President William Lucy, who is president of the CBTU, in spite of the visas issued to them by Zimbabwe's Washington embassy.

The state-controlled Herald newspaper Tuesday quoted President Robert Mugabe as calling the labor officials “agents of imperialism” who deserved to be deported.

Reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe reported on the trade union organizations' plans from AFL-CIO headquarters.

More stories from Studio 7 for Zimbabwe....

XS
SM
MD
LG