Gertrude Hambira is GAPWUZ’s General Secretary. She talks about her union’s programme to educate and organise on farms in the late 1990s, especially among women workers. Since the farm invasions in the country much of that work has been destroyed, but Gertrude has not given up. She remains dedicated to organising farmworkers, particularly the women.

“In Zimbabwe, many agricultural workers are third and fourth generation migrants from neighbouring countries. Traditionally, organising them has been very difficult. Their forebears came during the colonial regime and knew little other than the farm where they lived. Under the Masters and Servants Act, masters had the power to hire and fire.

After Independence in 1980, the Masters and Servants Act was repealed and replaced by the Industrial Conciliation Act, and then the Labour Relations Act of 1985 gave workers the fundamental right to belong, organise and participate in a union. But the colonial mentality still prevailed. Farmers said ‘Either you follow the union, or you can stay and I will give you wages, credit and education’. The workers had nowhere else to go and so they renounced the unions.

During the 1990s we ran a lot of education programmes. Gradually the workers started opening up about their problems: their low wages, the lack of schools and health facilities, poor accommodation, and lack of PPE and other health and safety provisions. Our programmes aimed to engage everyone, but there was a culture of ‘a woman’s place is in the kitchen’. It was unheard of for women to come to gatherings.

From 1994 we had a special programme focussing on women, with women-only workshops where they could speak for themselves, and we tried to persuade them how joining the union could help. The cultural set-up was a real barrier, though, as was the lack of education (which continues today).

We would start by recruiting 2 or 3 women and, by the time we returned, we would find they had recruited others in their community. Those who are most affected by problems on the ground are the most attracted. Common issues for the women are unpaid maternity leave, poor accommodation, low wages (also of their husbands), discrimination, health and safety issues, sexual harassment, HIV-Aids, and child labour.

One way that we used to identify women organisers was to hold a mass meeting, say of 100-200 workers from several farms. At the meetings, only men would speak. But if we stayed on afterwards, women would come up and say ‘This is my problem. Can you help?’

This helped us to identify individuals who might become organisers. We started by inviting them to 1-2 days’ training on basic trade unionism and workers’ rights. Later there would be a 5-days’ training with others from different sectors. Finally, we had a ten-day ‘educators’ training’. We told them, ‘You are now a union educator at shopfloor level. All the responsibility for union education lies upon you; that’s union ownership.’

In this way we recruited a team of ten women organisers from the farm-level to go around farming communities. It is very important to show that it is farm women themselves who can do it. That really motivated others to be in the unions. As a result, women-only committees were established at branch level (6-10 farms form a branch).

Our resources for this programme came from the ILO, the IUF, the Swedish LO-TCO and Dutch FNV unions, who put in a lot. We used the study circle method, which is a good participatory method for on-the-ground organisers. Yes, we might need academics. But it is our union policy to take from the shopfloor.

We also ran income-generating projects for women seasonal workers during the off-season periods, such as helping to establish vegetable gardens so that they could sell the produce, or sewing school uniforms.

After the farm invasions in 2000, however, many structures were disbanded. People holding union positions were displaced. Also HIV-Aids hit us hard. Our activities and structures built up over 15 years were destroyed overnight. And it remains so until today. However, we never tire or look back. We are now using the same methods, going back to Square One.

These are vulnerable people who have been told false stories such as ‘If you support the union, you are supporting the Opposition’. We have to develop strategies to educate them about their right to join unions. If we have an activity on a farm, invaders may come in. So, to speak only with farmworkers, we have to bring them into the local town or city, so that they can speak freely.

The organising project of the late 1990s really changed the union. It became big in numbers, to the extent of establishing a bipartite National Employment Council. Also a Women’s Desk was established in the union.

But in my experience men never really appreciate what women do and achieve. They really need to change their attitudes, to appreciate and accept women as their counterparts alongside whom they can work, and not keep looking at women’s multiple roles and ‘their place in the kitchen’. In fact, the majority on the Bargaining Council are men. There are only two women, including myself. We have to be there to keep women’s issues alive.”

All the women joined

“A union officer visited a flower plantation in the Mount Hampden area of Harare which employs over 200 women workers. In the thirty minutes she was allowed to address the workers, she highlighted their right to join a union and freedom of expression, and to protective clothing and equipment. She asked for comments or questions, but managers were present and no women spoke up.

Two days later, however, two women visited the union office. They were particularly upset by the lack of adequate clothing for women weeding in the fields. As they bent over to do their work, men supervisors would look at them, make comments or in other ways pick them out for attention. The women felt it was sexual harassment.

The organiser visited the compound to gather more information and took it up with the managers, who agreed to provide extra cloth and dustcoats. As a result, all the women joined the union.”

Interviewed by Celia Mather, Lusaka, 1 July 2006