“You'll Be Fired if You Refuse” - Human Rights Watch

IV. Anti-Union Activities
If you don’t ever talk, if you don’t ever complain, then the Chinese
[managers] will like you. 272
—Union Representative at Sino Metals, November 2010
While at least one union exists at each Chinese-run copper mine, the Chinese copper
mining operations in Zambia have inhibited workers from joining Zambia’s oldest mining
union, the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ). MUZ was established in 1948, prior to
independence, as the Northern Rhodesian African Mineworkers’ Union. The second main
union, the National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW), was formed in 2003.
Both represent thousands of miners across the Copperbelt, but management in several
Chinese-owned operations appear to have chosen to accept only NUMAW, despite some
workers expressing a clear preference to be represented by MUZ. Domestically in China,
there is only one legal trade union—the government-affiliated All-China Federation of Trade
Unions—and many problems described in this section are similar to those experienced
within China. 273 At every non-Chinese copper mine, workers have been free to establish
and join branches of both unions.
In addition to impeding the establishment of MUZ, union leaders at the Chinese operations
said that they faced discrimination because of their union activities. These problems were
not limited to the Chinese mines—union representatives at several non-Chinese mines
also expressed concerns for this. This raises broader issues regarding the right to
association and union activity in Zambia.
The right of workers to join unions of their choice is protected under international human
rights and labor law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights both provide for the right
to freedom of association with others, including “the right to form and join trade unions”
for the protection of their interests. 274 Likewise, ILO Convention No. 87 concerning Freedom
of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise states, “Workers and employers,
without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right to establish and, subject only to the
272 Human Rights Watch with union representative A at Sino Metals, Kitwe, November 7, 2010.
273 “Trade Unions in China: Membership Required,” The Economist, July 31, 2008.
274 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N.
Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force Mar. 23, 1976, art. 22; ICESCR, art. 8.
85 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011