Zimbabwe unions threaten new strikes over wages

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main labor movement on Tuesday renewed demands for better working conditions and access to anti-retroviral drugs, and threatened to stage fresh strikes in the next three months if their concerns were not addressed.

"As the economy continues to slide so are disposable incomes ... thereby creating a sense of despondence, helplessness and hopelessness," said Lovemore Matombo, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leader, to cheers from the crowd.

"Failure to do this will see workers starting strikes in the next three months," Matombo said, speaking in Zimbabwe's Shona language, when addressing hundreds of people to mark Workers' Day at a stadium in Harare.

A dozen police officers kept watch on proceedings.

A planned strike last month by the ZCTU over their demands largely failed as President Robert Mugabe's government deployed police and promised a tough response to any protesters.

But on Tuesday ZCTU leaders renewed those demands.

The unions want the government to sign up to an accord agreed in 2001 to improve governance and respect human rights and increase the minimum wage to the poverty datum line level, currently at Z$1,5 million ($6,000 using the official exchange rate but $60 on the black market).

Matombo said workers were on average earning Z$200,000 and had no access to AIDS drugs, accusing authorities of favoring politically connected patients.

Zimbabweans are grappling with a deep economic crisis, marked by the world's highest inflation rate above 2,200 percent and unemployment above 80 percent. Most workers struggle to pay their bills and feed their families.

The government has since March imposed bans on protests and rallies across much of Harare after police clashed with opposition supporters.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, denies charges of mismanaging the economy and accuses the ZCTU of fronting the main opposition to remove him from power.