Union intervenes to release mineworkers from Covid-19 quarantine camp3 June, 2020Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) recently intervened to end a month-long Covid-19 quarantine, in which workers lived in a makeshift camp at Chambishi mine on the copper belt.
Unions campaign for decent work in artisanal and small-scale mining 1 September, 2022Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Sub Saharan Africa is largely informal with over 13 million, mainly youth, working in the informal mines. In Zambia, ASM extracts cobalt, copper, gold, iron, manganese, nickel, lead, tin, zinc, nickel, and precious stones while in Ghana the main mineral is gold.
3,000 jobs lost expose precarious working conditions in Zambia’s copper mines 16 May, 2019Glencore’s Mopani Copper Mine announced that it will close two shafts and retrench 600 permanent workers and a further 1,500 from contracted companies, and Zambian unions are angry.
Zambian union on organizing blitz for contract mineworkers27 March, 2019Mining companies in Zambia are increasingly employing workers through contractors instead of offering direct employment. Unions are recruiting and organizing to fight back this promotion of precarious work.
Unions push for safer, organized artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe26 August, 2025In Zimbabwe, where artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) accounts for over half of the country’s gold production, unions are stepping up to improve health, safety and organization for informal miners.
Curbing violations by Chinese multinationals in African critical minerals boom 31 October, 2025As the world races towards net zero, Africa’s vast reserves of cobalt, lithium and copper, which are vital for electric-vehicle batteries and renewable-energy technologies, have huge potential to industrialize the continent and boost manufacturing. Yet in the extraction of the critical minerals, Chinese multinationals, are engaging in unfair labour practices, paying low wages, and destroying the environment.
Zambian miners strike for wages17 May, 2013“Whilst we are happy with progress we are making in wage negotiations, we aslo want to see improvement in working conditions in the mines” said Joseph Chewe, General Secretary of MUZ.
Zambia: Dangote confronted over union busting22 March, 2018IndustriALL affiliates, the National Union of Commercial and Industrial Workers and the Mineworkers Union of Zambia are fighting against African multinational cement company, Dangote, for violating workers’ rights to organize, freedom of association, and for failing to recognize collective bargaining rights.
Women workers in Zambia and Tanzania pledge to fight violence8 December, 2017“We will take the Pledge!” cheered young women workers during the Women Organizers’ exchange workshop in Kitwe, Zambia last week.
