Developing Integrated Collective Bargaining System in a Bi National Organization:The Case of the Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority(TAZARA)

The Tanzania Zambia Railway stretches 1,860 kilometers from the East African Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to New Kapiri-Mposhi in land locked Zambia.It is defined as a bi-national organization as opposed to either transnational or multinational because it is jointly owned and managed by the Governments of Tanzania and Zambia.Its construction was made possible by Chinese interest-free loan to the two Governments.Few development projects in Africa have been charged with as much political and ideological dynamite as Tanzania Zambia Railway.To the Western powers,angry that the Chinese had entered territory which they considered their own preserve,it was a Red Railway intended to thrust communism into the very heart of Africa.For the white regimes in Southern Africa,grimly attempting to hold back demands for majority rule,it was seen as Africa’s Ho Chi Minh Trail,carrying guerrilla further,armed with Chinese thoughts and weapons to the banks of the Zambezi River.The Chinese regarded the project as a Friendship Route to strengthen the new African states against the forces of imperialism and for Tanzania and Zambia it was a Freedom Railway,which should prove an instrument in increasing their independence.These reactions underpin not only the complexity of the establishment and management of a bi-national organization but also present challenges to the two national trade unions on how best they can represent their members.Industrial relations literature has cited differences in countries’historical,social,political,economic,and ideological background as the main obstacles in the development of collective bargaining machinery in transnational or multinational organizations.A study in Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority has attempted to develop an integrated bi-national collective bargaining machinery whose collective agreements are likely to be legally enforceable in their respective countries.This paper explores the development of trade unions in both Tanzania and Zambia which can be divided in three phases:first,the construction phase;second,the consolidation phase;and the third and final phase,trade union liberalization and political pluralism which covers the development of a bi national collective bargaining model with its Joint Industrial Council structure and negotiation procedures.The paper compares and contrasts trade union development in the two contracting states and critically examines how each phase has influenced trade union development.It provides a brief historical outline of collective bargaining process and spells out advantages and limitations of bi-national collective bargaining machinery.The paper concludes by observing that one of the main objectives of regional groupings is economic integration and suggests that integrated collective bargaining machinery be adopted as an ideal industrial relations model for regional groupings such as the African Union(AU),Southern African Development Community(SADC),Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa(COMESA),Economic Community for West African States(ECOWAS),Eastern African Community,and other regional groupings around the world since it localizes industrial relations function in general and collective bargaining in particular.

Effect of Collective Bargaining on Employee Motivation in the Zimbabwean Gold Mining Sector

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of collective bargaining on employee motivation in the Zimbabwean gold mining sector.The continued restless among employees at various gold mines in the midlands province has resulted in productivity levels dwindling.There has been increased labour turnover by employees as well as increased union representation to management.Questionnaire were used to collect data.In this article a population of one thousand employees was used.A sample of two hundred employees was selected across the board.The results of the study indicate positive relationships between collective bargaining and job satisfaction among the employees in the Zimbabwean gold mining sector.Implications of these results are that the human resource interventions are required in order to create an environment in which employees can freely engage in collective bargaining.Furthermore,the results indicate that collective bargaining engenders intrinsic motivation and above all allows for the protection of employee’s rights and welfare as well as promoting industrial democracy.This study recommends that managers should guard against preventing or obstructing employees from seeking legal redress to protect their interest.In addition,labour officers should be given the right of reasonable access to workers during working hours at their organisations for the purposes of advising the workers on the law.The employees should be given a latitude to belong to a trade union and or workers committee.

Collective Bargaining During the Crisis： The Portuguese Case

Following a period of significant development at the end of the 1990s, with economic growth rates greater than those of the European Union, the Portuguese economy stagnated in 2002 and even declined in 2003. The current context of international crisis has just interrupted the fragile growth trend initiated in 2004： In fact, real GDP, which increased by 1.9 percent in 2007, had a growth rate of zero in 2008 and declined by 2.9 percent in 2009. The crisis has abruptly increased the closure of companies and unemployment jumped from 7.3% in the second haft of 2008 to 10.1% in the forth quarter of 2009. Notwithstanding, social dialog was resilient to this situation of economic crisis, as shown by the number of collective agreements negotiated by the social partners, the number of workers covered by collective agreements and the observed increase in real wages. Additionally, social partners have agreed on a reform of the Labour Code. Are this data enough evidence of social concentration on crisis management？ This paper will analyze this issue, giving particular attention to collective bargaining in Portugal and the crisis impact on the industrial relations system and their actors