Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

Gertrude Hambira doesn't look like someone who gets arrested regularly. Nor do the other women and men in suits who work with her at the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), formed in the mid-1980s to protect farm laborers. But arrest, harassment and even torture have been regular occupational hazards for Gertrude-the General Secretary of GAPWUZ-and her staff for many years.

Unfortunately, things have not gotten much better since the 2008 elections when President Mugabe refused to cede power to the democratically elected Morgan Tsvangirai, a former union leader himself. The resulting power-sharing agreement has left the two sides battling for control as the nation plummets deeper into unemployment and poverty. At least 90 percent of the populati0n is not part of formal workforce.

Crossposted from Borderjumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

While in Harare, Zimbabwe, we met with the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ), an initiative of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) which started operating in September of 2003. The research institute's primary objective to develop, through research, well-grounded policy positions designed to influence development processes and outcomes at the national, regional and international levels. This is particularly important in the context of globalization where national policy is increasingly giving way to regional and international developments. In this regard, the ability to anticipate developments will help in designing proactive policies that respond promptly to external challenges.

LEDRIZ shared with us the training and research materials and documents they use in training programs throughout the country around the "8 Socio-Economic Rights.' Rather than directly endorsing political candidates, ZCTU advocates for democracy and good governance in Zimbabwe. LEDRIZ is strategically positioning itself to be part of every major economic policy debate in Zimbabwe, an impressive feat given the tight autocratic rule President Mugabe maintains over the country. In addition, LEDRIZ is fighting hard to establish progressive policies such as opposing the privatization of public utilities, providing support for the informal sector, protecting workers' pensions and their ability to retire with dignity.

In establishing an aligned research institute, the labor movement in Zimbabwe is following the examples of the US, European, South African and Namibian trade unions. Such a research think-tank is particularly helpful in an economy like Zimbabwe's which has experienced a wrenching brain drain, undermining capacity. The main strength of LEDRIZ is that it is a member of several national, regional and international networks such as the Alternatives to Neo-liberalism in Southern Africa (ANSA) which it coordinates; the African Labour Research Network (ALRN); and the Global Union Research Network (GURN), launched in January 2004 under the coordination of the ILO Bureau of Workers' Activities and the International Trade Union Council (ITUC).

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Imagine being one of only five opposition voices in a country of thirteen million people, where all radio, print and television is strictly controlled by the government. That's Ben Madzimure's uphill battle everyday as editor of "The Worker," the voice of the labor movement, in Zimbabwe--especially because his newspaper is only printed once a month, with only 5,000 copies distributed throughout the country.

"Zimbabwe used to have such a vibrant and independent media but most of the press was shut down," said Madzimure. Today many of the print reporters across the country bite their tongues and print the government's viewpoint. Madzimure, on the other hand, actively seeks out stories the government doesn't want mentioned, such as worker discontent and political corruption, and provides an unfiltered analysis of current events.  

While President Mugabe lost the presidential election of 2008 (despite employing voter suppression strategies), he refused to relinquish power to the victor, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. Today, under a "power sharing" agreement between the parties of Mugabe and Tsvangirai, the government continues to control all forms of media and mass-communication.

Given that Zimbabwe is one of the most literate countries in Africa, around 90 percent literacy rate, print media is a critical tool in moving a message. Madzimure says that after the newspaper is read, it's passed on to at least nine other people and it remains a  "permanent marker," because people use it to "wrap things or to fill holes."

With a population spread out over hundreds of miles in rural areas, "The Worker" is the main way for the trade union federation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), to disseminate news and inspire activity. "When ZCTU calls for national actions, the media doesn't report on it at all, "The Worker" is a main vehicle giving directions to people on how to participate in strikes, elections and public actions," said Madzimure.

Yet, despite financial support from the ZCTU, the Solidarity Center in the United States, the Canadian Labour Congress, and others -- the $1 USD price tag to purchase the paper is too expensive for most Zimbabweans. With 80 percent job informalization in the country , according to a recent United Nations report, the labor movement relies on its local networks to make sure the message filters throughout the country. Union members at every district are providing reporting as "volunteer correspondents" and several unemployed  reporters are also lending a hand.

Madzimure's dream is to eventually turn "The Worker" into a daily publication, offering investigative reporting and political analysis. In the meantime, while most Zimbabweans have no access to the computer, this does not stop Ben from promoting widely via every medium at his disposal including a news blog, a fan page on Facebook (it has 3,800 fans), and on Twitter (12,000 followers).  

Click here to learn more about The Worker from Ben Madzimure's, the Editor.

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

It's hard to believe that more than 90 percent of the workforce in Zimbabwe are part of the informal sector. These workers do everything from selling bananas and playing music to selling stone carvings and other crafts. Unfortunately because they are not considered part of the formal economy, they are often the most exploited-or ignored-by the government. As a result, in 2002, they formed the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA), an associate of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), to help gain a voice for their members in government.

These workers, who traditionally competed against each other and with the formal sector -are now coordinated and working together to tackle pressing issues such as social security, disability benefits, improved infrastructure, working conditions, and many others.

The Informal Economy is being helped by ZCTU together with their elected leadership to lobby legislators to change the laws to that they become user friendly.

We were given the opportunity to visit two community projects coordinated by the informal workers association with President Beauty Mugijima and program coordinator Elijah Mutemeri.

The first project was a village where they are working with the local community to build a school in an area where hundreds of people were forced to relocate during "Operation Restore Order." As part of a de-urbanization program under Mugabe, the controversial leader of the country, nearly 2 million workers were forcibly removed from their homes in cities, stripped of their belongings, and forced to live in rural areas, without any agriculture skills or training. We met with this community who, despite having very few resources and little volunteer support, are trying to build a school to teach area children. They recently succeeded in getting accredited by the local government and the community is pushing public officials for additional resources to build the school. The visit was especially inspiring because the teachers working there endure long commutes because they believed in helping the community. Many families in the makeshift town are also raising orphans or abandoned children, as well their own.

The second project we visited is an orphanage for children that the union is helping support. As we arrived children were singing, clapping, and rushing to offer us hugs and high fives. Most of these hundreds of kids lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and the orphanage provides them not only with a place to go to learn and go to school, but also gives them a family.

The teachers and caretakers who work there are mostly volunteers and you can see that they share a deep commitment and passion for the future of these kids.

Stay tuned for a small-dollar donation drive to help this orphanage in the coming weeks.

Click here to watch a video about ZCIEA: Responding to 'Operation Restore Order'.

In Harare, on the way to our meeting with Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), even our driver was excited for us.

"He is a good, good man. I've only seen him on TV, but he's fights very hard for the people and to promote democracy!"

Since the early 1990s, ZCTU grew increasingly opposed to the government of Robert Mugabe and was the main force behind the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In fact, MDC's leader and the current Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai held the same position with the ZCTU before Chibebe.

Chibebe is one of the most vocal-and effective-voices in civil society promoting respect for human rights and democracy. Despite being brutally beaten, tortured, and having his life threatened over the last two decades, Chibebe remains more positive than ever about the direction of his country. It was largely due to Zimbabwe's labor movement that in the 2008 presidential election Tsvangirai defeated Mugagbe. Yet despite MDC's victory, Mugabe, refuses to step down and the nation has a "power sharing" agreement.

When we met with Chibebe, he was cautiously optimistic about the power-sharing agreement and the future of democracy in Zimbabwe. "Our role as the labor movement is to fight for democracy and good governance, respect for people's basic rights, and also social and  economic rights." He says that while the MDC plays a critical role in promoting democracy, the mission of the union movement will be to hold all political parties accountable to these principles. "We just can't afford to repeat the same mistake by treating any government or political party as angels from heaven," he says. While he described the beginning of the power-sharing agreement as "terrible," Chibebe felt strongly that "things are now getting better, we are able to make some positive changes happen."

Chibebe was born 300 miles south of Harare. His upbringing herding goats and farming built both a sense of responsibility and social consciousness, he says. "Rural kids grow up different from urban ones, you start fighting for your rights at a very early age. If you aren't aggressive, you'll get abused." He also described how in rural life he had no access to books or libraries, so everyone listened to their elders, learning about the importance of struggle and hearing passionate tales of resistance against the ruling government. Not even a teen when his mother passed away, Chibebe became passionately involved in political struggle for social and economic justice that has lasted his whole life.

Being at the helm of the Zimbabwe labor movement at this moment is no easy task. The country faces unemployment rates of more than 90 percent. The media is controlled by the government. Union leaders are routinely harassed and imprisoned. And the Mugabe government instituted draconian laws to thwart unions, such as arresting any meeting of more than four people. Yet the affiliates of the ZCTU, representing more than 30 unions and every sector of the economy, have remained united. "While it is very difficult at times with unemployment so high to convince people to be in unions, we are still able to recruit and grow."

Chibebe works tirelessly to bring attention to Zimbabwe's economic and human rights realities and to pressure the government to reform its ways.  As workers struggle to survive inflation and low paying informal employment, Chibebe has expanded the work of the ZCTU to represent all workers in both formal and informal employment.  ZCTU  fights for economic and social justice not just for his members, but for the fundamental rights of all of Zimbabwe's workers.

In 2002, Chibebe and the ZCTU had the vision of helping informal sector workers-everyone from street vendors to musicians and artisans-form unions. The desire for social and economic change spread like wild fire when the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Associations (ZCIEA) started in 2002. Presently with more than 1.5 million paying members (out of  3.5 million members), the informal workers now have access to all the resources of the ZCTU such as their lobbyists, their research arm, and the strength and power of their affiliate unions.

Chibebe, and everyone we met with at ZCTU, speaks with great pride about the support they've been given by the American labor movement through the Solidarity Center, which maintains an office in the country. "Because of the Solidarity Center and the American worker, we've had incredible moral and material support," Chibebe said. Some of the examples he cites are the role the Solidarity Center plays in supporting their research institute, expanding distribution of their newspaper "the Worker," their ability to fund a lobbyist, create a paralegal program, training activists and leaders, and getting support from international governments and politicians through organizational delegations such as the visit from the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU).

Click here to watch a video of Chibebe Wellington speak about his work.

Cross posted from Border Jumpers.

Surrounded by neatly trimmed bushes and flower beds, Johnson Matthey Catalysts in Germiston, South Africa, just outside of Johannesburg, looks more like a botanical garden than a factory. But every day nearly 600 workers pass through its doors to their jobs on an assembly line making catalytic converters that are inserted in cars to reduce pollution, complying with South Africa 's auto environmental emissions standards.

As we arrived, Percy Nhlapo, a trainer with the Solidarity Center, an AFL-CIO affiliated non-profit organization that assists workers around the world who are struggling to build democratic and independent trade unions, was leading a discussion with a group of ten workers, correcting misconceptions about contracting the HIV virus and urging participants to get tested. The Solidarity Center is working in partnership with the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA), an industrial affiliate of the country's largest union Federation COSATU, to train and provide free HIV/AIDS testing and counseling to several thousand manufacturing workers a year.

"HIV/AIDS affects everyone, educating workers is the first step in helping them prevent further infection, getting tested is the second," said Percy. He likes educating smaller groups to ensure a deeper, more open discussion and estimated that he and fellow trainers, Kuki Ndlovu and Nhlanhla Mabizela, would train at least 200 workers that day alone.

After the training, nearly all the workers voluntarily agreed to be tested. At the testing area, we spoke with registered nurse Dorothy Majola, who said that before workers are tested they are given private counseling, and then she administers two separate tests -- both with 99.99 percent accuracy -- to ensure correct results.

"I find this job so rewarding because it so important that people know their status, as soon as they know their status they can change their lifestyle and behavior, which it will allow them to live longer lives," said Majola.

Within ten minutes after being tested, workers are escorted from an outdoor waiting area with tea and refreshments to sit privately with a counselor and receive their results. We spoke with several counselors who told us that the vast majority of workers test negative despite, in many cases, believing that they were infected. One counselor told us that this relief often translates into a change in behavior.

The company, Johnson Matthey Catalysts, in coordination with NUMSA and the Solidarity Center, agreed to host the training, allowing workers to attend and get tested at the beginning and end of their work shifts. The shop stewards spend weeks before the training educating their co-workers about the importance of attendance. This type of cooperation ensures that throughout several days nearly everyone at the plant participated in the training and testing.

Brian Shezi, the HIV/AIDS program director for the Solidarity Center, told us the workers' unions are effective spokespersons to train and encourage HIV testing because of the fundamental trust and connection workers feel towards them.

"Since October 2005 we've been working with unions to promote access to HIV/AIDS services, education, gender training, and union capacity building," said Shezi.

Visiting worksites is just one of many techniques the Solidarity Center is using to educate workers about HIV/AIDS. At the Rwanda/Uganda border in Katuna, Uganda, we visited a HIV/AIDS Resource Center providing a safe space for long-distance truck drivers to socialize and receive free education, counseling, and HIV testing.

About 20 men sat on chairs at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center in Katuna, Uganda, intently watching a match between Manchester United and Chelsea on a small television. Along with the pool table, board games, and additional television downstairs, soccer games provide a much needed distraction for the long-distance truckers who have to wait for their vehicles to be cleared by customs before entering Rwanda.

But just eight months ago, instead of television and camaraderie among workers, the easiest diversion for truckers was sex. Katuna is one of many towns along what is known as the Northern Transport Corridor--a span of highway that stretches from Mombasa,Kenya through Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and all the way to Djibouti.

In the past, the truckers were often delayed for days on the border, giving them little to do. Boredom--and drinking--often led to unsafe sex with prostitutes at the truck stops along the highway. As a result, truck drivers have one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Africa. Unfortunately, the virus doesn't stop with them, and is often spread to their spouses.

Now, thanks to the work of the Solidarity Center , a non-profit launched by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organziations (AFL-CIO) to empower workers around the world by helping them form unions, and Uganda's Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU), which has about 3,500 members in Uganda, the amount of time truckers spend on the border has been reduced from days to just hours. The union has worked through bargaining with the government to reduce the amount of time it takes their paper to go through which reduced the amount of free time they have on the border.  When they don't have as much free time, they're not as likely to engage in unsafe sex.  

According to Romano Ojiambo-Ochieng, ATGWU General Secretary, the union and the Solidarity Center has set up four resources centers in Uganda under the ROADS (Regional Outreach Addressing AIDS through Development Strategies)  project with Family Health International (FHI) and funding from US AID. These resource centers "provide alternative activities to truck drivers as they wait for their travel papers to be processed." Many of the things truckers can do at the centers are educational, getting information about how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, as well as working conditions, workplace safety, and reproductive health.

Lake Naivasha is known as a beautiful place to see wildlife, including thousands of pink flamingos. But just off the main road to the Naivasha national park, are hectares and hectares of greenhouses as far as the eye can see. They're not growing food inside the greenhouses--although Kenya, like other parts of Africa, is experiencing food shortages, malnutrition, and hunger because of prolonged drought--but flowers. The flower factory we visited -- the Sher Karuturi plant -- produces up to one million roses a day, which are sold at auction in Dubai and Holland and eventually make their way to the European Union and the United States.