Dunlop, Rubber Plastic workers down tools.

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WORKERS from two Bulawayo tyre manufacturing companies — Dunlop Zimbabwe and Rubber Plastic are on strike over unpaid wages and low salaries.

WORKERS from two Bulawayo tyre manufacturing companies — Dunlop Zimbabwe and Rubber Plastic are on strike over unpaid wages and low salaries and have vowed not to return to work until their plight is addressed.

Gamma Mudarikiri Own correspondent

Hundreds of Dunlop workers on Friday went on strike after the company reportedly failed to honour a ruling from an arbitrator who had given the company a 14-day period to negotiate a salary increase with its workers. Dunlop workers earn a gross salary of $108 a month and took their employer to court, which last month gave the company the two-week notice.

The 14-day period lapsed on Friday and the company is said to have now resorted to appealing against the arbitrator’s ruling, which provided for negotiations, which the workers were anticipating would result in the review of their salaries. “The company has been paying us $108 from 2009, while we are working 12-hour shifts and now the management is telling us that they will not negotiate with us for a salary review,” one of the disgruntled workers said.

The angry employees said they were not given housing and transport allowances, adding that they will not go back to work until their salaries are reviewed to at least $250. Company managing director Kennedy Mandevani was said to be in Harare and could not reached for comment. The human resource manager Mbonisi Mkwananzi, although on the company premises, declined to comment. “I don’t have any appointment with journalists,” he said dismissively.

Ironically, this comes as Dunlop announced that it had increased its capacity utilisation to close to 50% in direct response to the increase in demand of its tyres on the export market adding that domestic sales were also surging. Workers at Rubber Plastics Manufacturing (Pvt) Limited, just a few metres away from Dunlop, also downed their tools over unpaid salaries.

“We have not been paid for the past six months and management is telling us that the company has no money,” the disgruntled workers said. The workers said they had not been paid since February and that is why they had resorted to a strike.

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