adminthroughout the country, amid revelations the parastatal is losing an average of US$1 million per day due to the ongoing strike.
NRZ public relations manager Mr Fanuel Masikati on Thursday said only the goods trains would be running until the strike is over.
“We would like to advise the public that there will be no commuter trains and passenger trains in the country,” said Mr Masikati. “We will be running freight trains until the strike is over. Cargo carriage has a huge impact on the country’s economy hence the decision to run freight trains despite the industrial action,” he said.
The NRZ management on Thursday held a crisis meeting at the company headquarters at the corner of Fife Street and 10th Avenue in Bulawayo where general manager, Retired Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai appealed to the thousands of workers who include enginemen, signal operators, artisans and office clerks to return to work.
Speaking at the meeting, Rtd Air Commodore Karakadzai said only half the number of trains did run during the first two days of the strike, Tuesday and Wednesday, resulting in the parastatal losing millions of dollars.
He described the strike, which enters its fourth day today, as an unfortunate event.
“This is an unfortunate event, it is two days now and in terms of train service we lost 14 trains as only 16 out of 30 ran on 27 September and yesterday only 16 trains ran, which means out of 60 trains that were supposed to run in two days, 32 ran,” said Rtd Air Commodore Karakadzai.
“In terms of tonnages we have lost about 33 307 tonnes of traffic that should have been moved and that translates to about US$2 million for the two days. Obviously that has a bad impact on business and the organisation as a whole.”
However, he said per day the company usually makes an average of about US$225 000, which translates to about US$7 million per month against expenditure of about US$10,5 million for fuel, salaries and spare parts. The NRZ workforce, drawn from the four unions – Zimbabwe Amalgamated Railway Workers’ Union, Railway Association of Yard Operating Staff, Zimbabwe Railways Artisans Union and Railway Association of
Engineering – downed tools across the country on Tuesday to press management to pay them outstanding salaries and allowances.
The workers are accusing management of deliberately refusing to pay them outstanding salaries and allowances but management is saying it is failing to meet its financial obligations which include paying salaries and allowances because the money it was generating at present is less that its expenditure.
“Our revenue is low, which is why we had to stagger salaries where we are paying them in two batches of 30 percent and give them the remaining 40 percent later. We rely on derived demand and because of the liquidity crunch on the market, there is no money as the volume of traffic is low,” said Rtd Air Commodore Karakadzai.
He said it was unfortunate that the workers had become impatient at a time when even the union leaders knew that both parties were waiting for feedback from the Minister of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development Nicholas Goche after a meeting a fortnight ago. Meanwhile Government yesterday implored the employees to return to work as negotiations with management continued.
Online Reporter