The strike at Mozambique’s largest food processing factory, the Companhia Industrial de Matola (CIM), went into a third day on Wednesday, with the management claiming it could not afford to meet the workers’ wage demands. After initially refusing to talk to the media, the company held a press conference at which the CIM financial director, Alfredo Lopes, claimed that there was no room to raise wages any further, because CIM, like other milling companies, is under pressure from the government to hold down the price of flour.Lopes said that the strike was triggered by a group acting unilaterally and contrary to the management’s efforts to ensure the welfare of the work force, by paying wages that are 28 per cent higher than the statutory minimum wage for the sector. He denounced the strike and called on the workers to resume production immediately.The current minimum wage at CIM is 3,200 meticais (89 US dollars) a month, and the workers initially demanded a rise of 62.5 per cent, to bring the minimum monthly wage of 5,200 meticais.When the management flatly rejected this, the workers lowered their demand to 4,000 meticais a month, the sum that Lopes said is impossible for CIM to meet.But the secretary of the CIM trade union committee, Claudio Muianga, said that the workers will only resume work when their demands are met. “We want better wages, overtime payment and equal treatment”, he stressed.
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