Tresphore Chileshe, the president of the Workers Union of Tazara-Zambia (WUTAZ), said some copper was stuck at Kapiri Mposhi, 200km north of Lusaka, because of the slow movement of cargo trains due to the strike.

Chileshe told Reuters that 1,400 striking workers had refused to return to work, forcing management officials to drive cargo trains carrying copper to the port of Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania.

"Most of it (copper) is at Kapiri Mposhi because there is slow movement of cargo trains as our members are on strike. There is also congestion for other exports," Chileshe said.

Copper is carried on trucks from the southern African nation's mineral-rich copper belt to Kapiri Mposhi where workers reload the metal onto trains.

"At the moment management workers are the ones offloading the trucks, but they are quite slow because that is not their area (of expertise)," he added.

Workers are demanding a pay hike of $208 per month across the board, while management has offered no increase, Chileshe said. Lowest paid workers at Tazara earn $100 per month.

Chileshe said Tazara workers in Tanzania had also threatened to join the strike.

"It is a difficult situation, and we hope management will offer something. We have a meeting at the Tazara headquarters in Dar-Es-Salaam this Friday and we hope we can resolve this impasse," Chileshe said.

Zambia's Transport and Communications Minister Sarah Sayifwanda told Reuters that the government was concerned with the slow movement of copper and that it had stepped in to help management and the union to break the deadlock.

"There is a step forward we have taken to help resolve the strike. We are very concerned with the situation and we want to ensure things get back to normal," the minister said in response to a question on the slow movement of copper.

Zambia owns 67 percent of Tazara, while Tanzania holds the balance. The railway was constructed by the Chinese in the 1970s as an alternative route for Zambian copper after sanctions were imposed on South Africa for its apartheid policy.

Years of neglect have forced some copper mines to export their production by road to Durban in South Africa, one of southern Africa's largest ports.

See also:

Copper

miningmx.com: 05 Sep 2007

A huge consignment of Zambian copper destined for export is stuck in transit following a three-week strike by unionized employees of the Tanzania-Zambia Railways (Tazara), officials on Wednesday told Reuters.

Tresphore Chileshe, the president of the Workers Union of Tazara-Zambia (WUTAZ), told the news wire that 1,400 striking workers had refused to return to work, forcing management officials to drive cargo trains carrying copper to the port of Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania.

Workers are demanding a pay hike of $208 per month across the board, while management has offered no increase, Chileshe said. Lowest paid workers at Tazara earn $100 per month.

"It is a difficult situation, and we hope management will offer something. We have a meeting at the Tazara headquarters in Dar-Es-Salaam this Friday and we hope we can resolve this impasse," Reuters said, citing Chileshe.

See also:

Zambia: Tazara Workers Locked Out

The Times of Zambia (Ndola): 28 August 2007

THE Joint Tanzania Zambia Railway (Tazara) Industrial Council meeting which was scheduled to take place in Dar-es- Salaam, Tanzania today to resolve the on-going stand off between Tazara management and employees has been put off until workers first call off their strike.

And Tazara management at the railway company's Zambia regional office in Mpika has locked out all unionised workers who were yesterday morning gathered outside the offices.

And the Workers Union of Tazara, Zambia has made a passionate appeal to Government to move in and help resolve the problems affecting employees at the railway firm.

WUTAZ general secretary Promise Nyirenda confirmed to ZANIS in Kasama in a telephone interview yesterday that management had cancelled the Joint Tazara Industrial Council demanding that workers must first return to work before any initiative to resolve the impasse could proceed.-ZANIS