 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch and our Mayday special series of interviews where we talk to representatives of trade unions from across the world. This Mayday is especially significant as the workers and trade unions across the world are facing a series of heightened challenges. So how are these organizations planning to confront them? What are the modes of organizing that they're thinking of? Today, we are joined by Edgar Desiree of the United Food and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe. Thank you so much Edgar for joining us and could you first start out by talking about what is the situation of workers under COVID-19 in the country, especially workers of your sector, the food and allied workers who are considered an essential service. These workers have to go out during the time of the pandemic. So do they have enough protective equipment? Do they have enough other other amenities that are being provided by the government and their employees? We have the greatest challenge is the provision of personal protective equipment in those sectors that have been declared by this government to be essential sectors that are operating within this lockdown, which were within our sector, the food industry. The service that we have recently carried out as a trade union showed that there is no compliance to the provision of personal protective equipment, especially masks, the sanitizers and so forth. It's not there. That's the first challenge. Then we have the other challenge of the suspension of the rights of the workers to the extent that the working hours which have been, which we recently picked in terms of legislation at nine hours on average, the workers are now working six to six low hours in an effort to cover up for the challenges arising as a result of the of the pandemic. We also have the other challenge, which is the the psychosocial fear in the workers, which is which we are getting, where the workers are there in apprehension as to what will become of them after or if the lockdown is to continue. And as a result of this pandemic, what will become of their jobs? Are they going to be safe? Are they going to be laid off those fears and the fear of how this they are going to support their families is the greatest fear? The other challenge is that the legislation is sort of being suspended in that the employers, they are forcing the workers to take their leave days. These days are a value. They are money. And they are just being forced to take their leave days as compensation for the loss that the employer is making during the lockdown period. The other challenge is that the working hours they have been shifted instead of working for nine hours a day, the workers are now having to wait for six hours for from six to six, which is 12 hours in a bid to contain the social distance. What has happened is the numbers they've reduced in the plans. And by reducing the numbers in the plans, the work cycle has been changed to accommodate social distancing. And by trying to accommodate social distancing, they have they have actually increased the number of waiting hours to 12 hours instead of nine hours. And the number of shifts have also been increased. Those are the greatest challenges that we are facing. Right. Has the government taken any step at all to ensure that the workers' rights are being protected or that they're not being exploited? Because we are getting reports of employers actually exploiting the workers. You mentioned of course the extension in time. So what steps are being taken by the government if at all? Currently, in Zimbabwe, there are no measures that have been taken to protect the workers. Instead, we have taken this special offer. It has been on the ground trying to ascertain the situation. This is where we are seeing the violation, the fundamental violation of this right by the employers, taking advantage of this situation. We are planning that if it is extended, we will then approach the government to say, where are the inspectors to inspect what is going on in the industry because the workers themselves are under threat from both the disease and the violation of their own rights during the COVID-19 period. Absolutely. And the other key question of course is that Zimbabwe over the past year especially has seen a number of protests. There was the strike by the doctors towards the end of last year, which went on for quite some time. And even before that, after the elections, there were a series of protests. So in this political context, what is the credibility of the government? Is it able to implement measures to tackle the disease properly? We did hear that there was a lot of suspicion about the government's testing efforts because they were not enough. On the ground practically, you may want to believe that there is a lockdown in theory but practically what is happening on the ground is it seems to be taking a political twist where a certain political party is now taking the COVID-19 as a campaign platform where the issue of looking at these people are having together and receive donations and so forth. That's the greatest challenge that we have seen. And the other key question in many countries is that how does the labor movement actually organize at a time like this? So the possibilities of strikes, the possibilities of rallies are no longer there right now and even in the coming months, it might be difficult to actually bring people in large numbers. And this is not even counting government suppression. So how is the union engaging with its members right now? What is the kind of communication that's going on? What are the strategies that are being used? Currently, as we were discussing recently on how to mitigate this in terms of organizing, we have devised the individual visits to companies to get information on what exactly is going on the ground. Small groups, we meet small groups of workers, four or five in a day and talk to them. We have also created WhatsApp platforms so that we are alerted to whatever is going on in the plans if we are not able to get there because the mass gatherings are no longer wanted. And in some companies, we are not allowed to get in simply because they are saying keep out because of this coronavirus while they violate the rights of the workers inside the plan. So that's why we use this WhatsApp platform to say WhatsApp so that we get to know whatever is going on inside there. And what are the key demands that the union is putting forward to the government right now? The greatest demand that we are putting forward is that there has to be a mitigation of the loss of jobs in the event of any in the form of a social cushion so that if those workers are to be laid off as a labor response to the COVID-19, the government should then be in a position to provide a social fund for those people to begin a new life after the layoff. Right. And what about regarding in the next coming months? Because also there is a question of governmental support in terms of food, in terms of other resources as well. In the coming months, we are actually planning and we can foresee this going up to as far as September. However, in terms of our demand, we are saying the government must come out clear as to its position with regard to the workers because currently here in the bubble, it's only the government is only meeting business to say how do we move forward without involving labor. And so we are demanding that even if it is to meet business, labor has to be involved to some extent and we are demanding that what is the current position, can you come out clean in terms of the money that you are saying you are going to give to industry that those that have been affected, how about the worker? How are they going also to sustain this worker, given that there is threat of cutting of wedges? How they are they going to get this cut of wedged by the by the by the driver? Absolutely. The way the workers in the food industry will sustain this country with the workers in the food industry will continue to fight the system until the Thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you very much for your idea. That's all we have time for today. Keep watching People's Dispatch.