About 400 workers of the Matola Industrial Company ( CIM), Mozambique’s largest food processing company, went on strike Monday demanding higher wages and better working conditions. Cited in Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, a spokesperson for the workers, who chose to remain anonymous “for fear of reprisals”, said that the workers’ complaints had been repeatedly presented to the employers. And there has been no satisfactory reply, he said, which was why the workers decided to resort to a strike action. “The wages we are earning here are very low and do not correspond with the jobs we do,” he added, saying “For instance, the minimum wage in the company is 2,100 meticais (US$ 87) a month, and any chance to get some more depends on one’s friendship with the chief”. The workers admit that they were aware that this strike would upset many other sectors that depend on their products, but they also stressed that this was the only way for them to resolve the lingering problems. The situation worsened when the police arrested one of the workers, but the situation became calmer after his release.
