patth (Patt Haring) (08/20/89)
Ported from PeaceNET /* Written 12:02 am Aug 18, 1989 by gn:geonet in cdp:reg.safrica */ /* ---------- "NAMIBIA:TRADE UNIONISM EXPANDING" ---------- */ NAMIBIA: TRADE UNIONISM EXPANDING Windhoek 17 Aug (NAMPA) The recently elected Secretary General of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), John Ya Otto, has told the Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) that the return of technical cadres from exile has made it possible to establish eight regional offices throughout of the country. During the campaign for the forthcoming independence elections, the unioin's regional offices will be concerned with labour issues and with monitoring information relevant to the independence process. Ya Otto said that the offices in the country will help to mobilis industrial workers and rural farmers to register and vote in the elections. The various tasks of union activists include educating the work force about election issues, and to draw to the attention of lawyers any untoward incidents and actions affecting the campaign. He expressed some "disappointment" with the performance of the United Nations in the early stages of the campaign, and said there was much for unionists to do. "But this entirely depends on the ability of our technical cadres to check on the happenings in Namibia,," he added. He felt that NUNW's duty was to inform the international lAbour movement about the problems unionists faced in the election campaign in order to influence solidarity and world pressure where it was necessary. Asked about the difficulties the labour movement confronted, Ya Otto said that the Namibian working class had long experience of assault, intimidation, dismissal from employment in the industrial sector, as well as in the farms, merely because of membership of SWAPO or support for the liberation struggle. Asked about future prospects of a single trade union structure, he recalled the trade union congress held in June and attended by all trade unions, when the final document determined that, in independent Namibia, the National Union of Namibian Workers should be the leader of all unions but under a federation system. (NAMPA) SM/MW --- Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange