92. White employers – in comparison compared with African entrepreneurs – were well organized at independence. Trade or employers’ associations existed in “the broad sectors of agriculture (Commercial Farmers’ Union, Agricultural Labour Bureau), industrial (Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries), mining (Chamber of Mines), commerce (Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and National Commercial Employers’ Association of Zimbabwe), and building (Construction Industry Federation of Zimbabwe). In addition, industry associations existed within these sectors (e.g., Engineering Employers’ Association of Zimbabwe)”. 35 After independence, the Confederation of Rhodesian Employers, which had hitherto played a minor role, became the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe. At this time, “a degree of suspicion, if not conflict, characterized relations between the major employer groups and the Government”. 36 93. In the newly independent Zimbabwe, health and education were extended to the whole community and trade unions, which were no longer banned from “associating with nationalist parties”, enjoyed freedom of association and expression for the first time. 37 Black workers on white-owned farms were no longer subject to the master and servant legislation 38 and farm workers became represented by, notably, the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ). Nevertheless, farm workers largely remained reliant on the social protection and patronage of farm owners. 39 94. A national trade union centre, called the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), was created in 1981, with the support and “deep interest” of the Government. 40 The ZCTU was a confederation of the six labour federations that existed in Zimbabwe at the time: the African Trade Union Congress, the National African Trade Union Congress, the Trade Union Congress of Zimbabwe, the United Trade Unions of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Federation of Labour and the Zimbabwe Trade Union Congress. Most white trade unions were dissolved or joined African trade unions by the mid-1980s. 41 95. Initially, the ZCTU was closely aligned to the Government and the ZANU–PF movement, with its founding secretary being Mr Alfred Mugabe, the Prime Minister’s brother. Nevertheless, up to 200 strikes were organized during the first two years of independence. The Minimum Wages Act, 1980 aimed to tackle discontent with wages by setting out minimum wages in the different sectors, partly in recognition of the fact that “trade unions were not yet 35 Shadur, op. cit., pp. 64–5. 36 Shadur, op. cit., p. 65. 37 Sachikonye, L., 1997, “Trade unions: Economic and political development in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980”, in B. Raftopoulos and I. Phimister, op. cit., pp. 107–128, p. 107. 38 By virtue of the Conditions of Service Regulation 1981, which repealed the Masters and Servants Act, the African Juveniles Employment Act, the African Labour Regulations Act and the Foreign Migratory Labour Act: Dansereau, S., 2000, “State, capital and labour: Veins, fissures and faults in Zimbabwe’s mining sector”, in Labour, Capital and Society, 33:2, pp. 216–254, p. 232. 39 Rutherford, B., 2000, “Racial politics and beyond in post-colonial Zimbabwe: Shifting public evaluations of class relationships on commercial farms”, in Labour, Capital and Society, 33:2, pp. 192–214, p. 195, p. 201. 40 Sachikonye, op. cit., p. 108. 41 Shadur, op. cit., p. 9. Meetings-2009-Zimbabwe C of I-2009-12-0035-3-En.doc/v3 35