Thursday, December 03, 2009

Wafanyakazi wa Reli bado Kulipwa Mishahara


Hivi jamani, nauli wanaotoza abiria inakwenda wapi? Hela ya kubeba mizigo inaenda wapi? Siewlewi kwa nini wanasema wanashindwa kulipa wafanyakazi mishahara yao. Nina uhakika hao mabosi wanalipwa mishahara wao.

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Kutoka ippmedia.com

TRL strike now countrywide
By Guardian team
3rd December 2009

The central line cargo and passenger transportation system was paralyzed yesterday after workers of the Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) downed tools over delay of last month’s salaries.

Due to the boycott, hundreds of passengers have been stranded at the Dar es Salaam central and other stations, with reports saying that a passenger train en-route got stuck at stations near Manyoni.

Tanzania Railway Workers Union (Trawu) secretary-general Sylvester Rwegasira confirmed reports of the strike, saying it was aimed at putting pressure on the defiant TRL management to pay their salaries for November.

In a move which deepens the management crisis, enraged workers of the cash-troubled TRL yesterday morning stormed the company’s headquarters along Sokoine Drive in the city in attempts to force the foreign and other senior management staff out of their offices.

However a police squad, led by the Railway Police Commander, Ruth Makeremo, who led armed police deployment at the offices, saved the day for the management by stopping the workers who had already arrived at the offices.

The workers had gathered at the central station in Dar es Salaam at around 11 in the morning for a briefing on the payment of their salaries. When they were told that there was no money, a large group of them decided to storm the offices to force the management out.

According to Rwegasira, the message about the defiant position of the management was shared among all workers across the country and the strike became effective immediately.

Shortly after the briefing, a group of workers, who carried placards castigating their management, moved to the TRL headquarters where the MD and his team were forced to pack and leave immediately. But police arrived to stop the workers.

The Railway Police chief Makeremo said there was no assurance of security for the management to leave in peace, that is why the exercise was suspended. Additionally, she said she had not been informed by respective government authorities about the move.

On Tuesday, the workers stormed offices of their management and deflated tyres of vehicles of the company’s senior staff over the same claims. Due to the chaos, hundreds of passengers who were destined for upcountry regions from Dar es Salaam were stranded after workers on duty to take the train to Mwanza and Kigoma via Morogoro, Dodoma and Tabora refused to work.

Cars whose tyres were deflated included that of the TRL managing director Hundi-Lal Chaudhary, a Prado bearing registration number T405 AVL. Other cars were T760 AWG, T898 AZX, T523 AVA, T814 AUV and T925 AWG.

Reacting to the workers claims, the TRL managing director Hundi-Lal Chaudhary maintained that his management can’t raise 1.6bn/- needed to settle November salaries for the workers.

Infrastructure Development ministry permanent secretary Omar Chambo had said earlier this week that the government had already disbursed 522m/- as part of the November salaries for the workers, which is part of its contribution to help the TRL end the problem.

In mid October this year, the TRL workers staged an eight-hour stand-off to end an administration and Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (Sumatra) planned test of locomotives and coaches. The workers claimed that carriages were defective and unworthy to carry passengers.

The workers were pressing for two basic demands; refusal to have 25 passenger coaches and 23 diesel power engines tested all the way to Dodoma, citing safety reasons and the immediate payment of their arrears.

TRL has been experiencing incidents of chaos and strikes by workers since the new management under the Indian firm, RITES, took over operations of the central railway line some three years ago.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tatizo liko pande mbili RITES na Tanzania Government. Hao ndo wenye hisa. Mikataba yenye utata iliyosainiwa na 'wanene' ndiyo imelifikisha shirika la reli hapo lilipo.