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WORKERS Day came and went yesterday, and with it a strong message was sent to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which appears to be stuck in a time-warp of an adversarial position to Government which, ironically, is supposed to be one of the recipients of the grievances the worker channels through the ZCTU.

For those not in the know, Government had — in the spirit of tripartitism — invited the ZCTU and the ZFTU — as the umbrella labour bodies of the private sector to joint Workers Day celebrations at Rufaro Stadium today where the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare promised to invite fellow ministers to field questions from worker representatives.

But the ZCTU, in their wisdom or apparently lack of it, insisted on holding their own celebrations at 17 centres countrywide with the main event — which was to be graced by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai — at Gwanzura Stadium.

Workers — and by workers we mean everyone involved in the socio-economic transformative process — read and ignored the ZCTU sideshow for what it was; an MDC-T rally disguised as a May Day gathering.

If the plight of the worker is the sole business of trade unionism, we wonder what the ZCTU sought to achieve for the worker through that partisan gathering. What happened yesterday was, however, a reminder of how the ZCTU/MDC-T alliance has taken trade unionism to the dogs. It is high time workers rose to reclaim their union from wannabe politicians.

We hail Zimbabweans across the divide for sending a clear message to the ZCTU that they have lost faith in them and their cause, whatever it is.

As we report elsewhere in this issue, there was widespread apathy to the ZCTU-organised gatherings in Harare and other parts of the country.

The worker apparently realised that he has been taken for a ride for a long time now. The ZCTU has been behaving like a de facto political party organising demonstrations against the Government rather than employers.

While we agree that the ongoing economic challenges warranted protests, we do not agree with the ZCTU’s claim that the Government is solely to blame and should be the target of such demonstrations.

It is our submission that the ZCTU through its senseless stayaways also had a lot to do with the economic challenges. In fact, the demonstrations should be targeted at the United States and British embassies, whose countries are behind the illegal economic sanctions regimes that have brought so much suffering to the workforce.

Since 1999, when the ZCTU leadership mutated into the MDC, the labour body has been more political than worker-oriented in its outlook.

If ZCTU leaders are concerned about workers they should honour their pledge to rejoin the TNF dialogue, which they sabotaged by their unilateral withdrawal on April 23, 2003.

Since then the TNF has been the missing link in ongoing efforts at economic turn-around. We reiterate that it is only under the auspices of the TNF that a sustainable social contract that abets economic revival can be made.

To this end, we hail Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Prisca Mupfumira for organising the inclusive gathering at Rufaro Stadium today, and urge all workers, in the formal or informal sector, to turn out in their thousands for the worthy cause.

We do not for a moment doubt that ZCTU leaders are aware of the importance of the social contract. The enormity of the challenges to be overcome requires collective efforts, for a house divided cannot stand.

If we all work in the national interest, in line with the spirit of the Kadoma Declaration, which calls on all stakeholders to move towards a shared national economic and social vision, then our socio-economic transformation will be realised sooner rather than later.