Abstract
This chapter surveys labour relations in Zambia, one of Africa’s most industrialised and urbanised states, which has a wage-earning sector larger than most and a relatively high wage economy. Any such survey must necessarily acknowledge the central position within the economy of the copper-mining industry which was the basis of the colonial economy, on which the country remains overwhelmingly dependent and which has had a major influence upon the development of industrial relations. The development of the copper-mining industry turned Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in twenty years from a backward rural territory into one of the most rapidly growing economies in the world. The imposition of a modern, highly mechanised industry upon a rural subsistence economy produced the rural-urban gap which remains one of the country’s most critical problems.1 The growth of an urban working class was a direct consequence of the growth of that industry. Moreover, it was the miners who pioneered industrial action and established the militant tradition which has characterised the labour movement and out of which grew one of Africa’s most powerful industrial unions. The mining industry in addition has had a major influence upon wage movements which have produced the country’s high wage economy.
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Notes
For an excellent introduction to the growth of the Northern Rhodesian economy see Robert Baldwin, Economic Development and Export Growth: A Study of Northern Rhodesia, 1920–1960 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966)
Charles Elliot (ed.) Constraints in the Economic Development of Zambia (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1971).
Baldwin, op. cit. For the history of Northern Rhodesia, see especially L. Gann, A History of Northern Rhodesia: Early Days to 1953 (London: Chatto and Windus, 1964).
Accurate figures for wage employment for the period are difficult to obtain. The most reliable appear to be those in W. Barber, The Economy of British Central Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1961) p. 202, drawn from Northern Rhodesia Blue Books, and Report of the Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Financial and Economic Position of Northern Rhodesia, Colonial No. 145, 1938 (Pim Report) (There were also at that time 26,300 workers in Southern Rhodesian Mines and 2121 in South Africa.) See also Baldwin, op. cit.
Pim Report; Patrick Ohadike, Development of and Factors in the Employment of African Migrants in the Copper Mines of Zambia, 1940–66, University of Zambia, Institute for Social Research, Zambia Papers No. 4 (1969);
Merrien McCullough, A Social Survey of the African Population in Livingstone (Manchester University Press, the Rhodes-Livingstone Papers, No. 26, 1956);
P. Harries-Jones‘The Tribes in the Towns’ in W. V. Brelsford, The Tribes of Zambia (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1965).
For the relationship between rural prosperity and rates of migration, see Robert H. Bates, Rural Response to Industrialisation, A Study of Village Zambia, New Haven and London; Yale University Press, 1976). These parts of luaquila which saw the growth of the fishing industry in the colonial period were areas of very low out migration.
See e.g., Pim Report, op. cit.; G. St. Orde-Browne, Labour Conditions in Northern Rhodesia (Colonial Office No. 150 of 1938);
A Lynn Saffery, A Report on Some Aspects of African Living Conditions on the Copperbelt of Northern Rhodesia (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1943).
Richard Grey, The Two Nations: Aspects of the Development of Race Relations in the Rhodesias and Nyasaland (London: Oxford University Press, 1960) p. 224.
A. L. Epstein, Politics in an Urban African Community (Manchester University Press, 1958) p. 81. On the disturbances, see Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the Disturbances in the Copperbelt, Northern Rhodesia, 1935 (Russell Commission) (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1935). Report of the Commission appointed to enquire into the Disturbances in the Copperbelt, 1940 (Forster Commission) (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1940). It is not insignificant that in the ZCTU General Secretary’s Office there is a large copper wall plaque commemorating the 1935 and 1940 disturbances.
Robert Rotberg, The Rise of a Nationalism in Central Africa (Oxford University Press, 1965). Also Ian Henderson, “Early African Leadership: the Copperbelt Disturbances of 1935 and 1940”, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, October 1975. The specific cause of the 1935 disturbance related to African taxation; the 1940 to wages.
This compares for example with the Kenyan situation. For the railways, see: Arthur Turner ‘The Growth of Railway Unionism in the Rhodesias, 1944–55’ in Richard Sandbrook and Robin Cohen (eds.), The Development of an African Working Class (London: Longman, 1975),
G. C. Chishala, ‘Railway Unions in Zambia 1945–73’ in Evance Kalula (ed.) Some Aspects of Zambian Labour Relations, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1975 (University of Zambia, 1975).
For a detailed study of Northern Rhodesian Labour Policy, see Elena Berger, Labour, Race and Colonial Rule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974).
The original recommendation for the creation of a labour department and appointment of a labour officer went back to Major G. St J., Orde-Browne, Labour Conditions on Northern Rhodesia. (HMSO, 1938). Other factors influencing delay included wartime conditions and European workers’ attitudes.
J. Clyde Mitchell, African Urbanization in Ndola and Luanshya, p. 13 (Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Mimeo, 1958). See also and especially A. L. Epstein, op. cit.
Epstein, op. cit., J. Clyde Mitchell, The Kalela Dance: Aspects of Social Relations among Urban Africans in Northern Rhodesia (Rhodes-Livingstone Institute Papers No. 27, Lusaka, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute 1956).
B. C. Roberts, Labour in the Tropical Territories of the Commonwealth (London: 1964), pp. 19, 57.
Quoted in Richard Jacobs, The Relationship Between African Trade Unions and Political Organisations in Northern Rhodesia/Zambia 1949–61 (Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies, 1971). Report and Award of the Arbitrator, C. W. Guillebaud, Esq., CBE, January 1953 (Guillebaud Award).
Jusat Branch Executive Meeting, Mufalira West, 26 February 1962 MUZ files, see also Epstein, op. cit.; Bates, op. cit.; and E. Berg and J. Butler, ‘Trade Unions’ in James Coleman and Carl Rosberg (ed.), Political Parties and National Integration in Tropical Africa (California: University of California, Berkeley, 1965).
Lord Hailey, African Survey (1938), p. 675 for rules made under the 1929 legislation. Elena Berger, op. cit., is the most important source for the colonial period.
For this period see William Tordoff (ed.), Politics in Zambia (Manchester University Press, 1975).
On wages policy see R. Bottomley, Wages and Incomes Policy (mimeo, University of Zambia, 1970); also B. Knight, op. cit.
Economic Commission for Africa, Food and Agricultural Organization, Economic Survey Mission on the Economic Development of Zambia, (Ndola: Falcom Press, 1964), p. 31 (The Seers Report).
Cap. 508, Laws of Zambia, see generally V. J. Malawi, Ministry of Labour and Social Services: Organisation and Functions of The Department of Labour (typescript, Department of Labour, 1973). Also Sacika, op. cit.
See Republic of Zambia, Employment and Earnings 1969–1971 (Central Statistical Office, Lusaka, 1974).
E.g. Zambia Mail, 5 February 1970. For employment figures see the Monthly Digest of Statistics; Manpower Report 1965–1966; and Zambian Manpower 1969. Also M. Veich, Employment and the Labour Force, Regional Analysis (Lusaka, Economics Club, Mimeo, n.d. but 1970).
See James Fry, The Cost of Living in Zambia (mimeo, University of Zambia, 1973). Also cost of living index.
Kitwe Report, op. cit.; Whelan Commission, Report of the Commission appointed to Review the Grading Structure of the Civil Service, the Salary Scales of the Civil Service … (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1966).
Bruce Kapferer, Strategy and Transaction in an African Factory (Manchester University Press, 1972), p. 322.
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© 1979 International Institute for Labour Studies
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Gertzel, C. (1979). Industrial Relations in Zambia to 1975. In: Damachi, U.G., Seibel, H.D., Trachtman, L. (eds) Industrial Relations in Africa. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16165-2_9
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