Labour strike off to a slow start in Zimbabwe

Workers interviewed by ZimOnline at their work places said they reported for duty fearing to lose wages after employers threatened not to pay those who stayed at home in response to the ZCTU call to boycott work to protest deepening economic hardships.
"My employees did not turn up and I had opened a single entrance with the aim of going home when some plain clothes security details walked in and ordered that we open all doors to the supermarket and warned that if I closed early my operating licence will be withdrawn," said a supermarket owner in the second largest city of Bulawayo who preferred not to be named.

Factory managers in Bulawayo's Belmont industrial site spoke of plain clothes police and agents of the feared state spy Central Intelligence Organisation who visited the area most of the morning warning officials to keep factories open or face serious consequences.