TAZARA launches Master Workers’ Council

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) has a new organ – the TAZARA Master Workers’ Council, formed in accordance with the Labour Laws of the United Republic of Tanzania. Speaking at the launch of the Council in Dar es Salaam, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Works and Communications in Tanzania, Dr Leonard Chamuriho said the Master Workers Councils have registered huge successes where they have been introduced. “These Councils have added good labour relations between management and workers unions, and workers in general,” Dr Chamuriho said. Dr Chamuriho said TAZARA had continued to be a symbol of unity between Tanzania and Zambian and therefore important to the nationals of both countries. He urged all members to utilise their membership to the Council to transform TAZARA and ensure that the glory days when TAZARA stood on its own returned. TAZARA Managing Director, Eng. Bruno Ching’andu said he was confident that the Master Workers’ Council would benefit the institution. “I am confident and comforted that the formation of the Master Workers’ Council will go a long way in consolidating dialogue and facilitating information flow to all structures and levels of the Authority,” he said. The Master Workers Council is an all-inclusive organ, comprising 83 Councillors and encompassing membership from all structures of TAZARA, from the bottom to the top, from Tanzania and Zambia. The Agreement for the establishment of the Council was made on 10th July 2013 between TAZARA and the Tanzania Railway Workers Union (TRAWU). Although the Agreement is between TAZARA and TRAWU, the organisation involves all workers of TAZARA, including workers from the Head Office in Dar es Salaam, the Regional Office of Tanzania and the Regional Office of Zambia. About TAZARA TAZARA is a statutory body established in both the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Zambia, by the TAZARA ACT of 1975, later superseded by the TAZARA ACT of 1995. The governments of Tanzania and Zambia are the joint and equal shareholders of TAZARA, whose headquarters is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The railway was constructed and equipped with the assistance of the Government of China, which provided an interest-free loan and expertise to construct the line between 1970 and 1975. TAZARA officially begun operations on 14th July 1976. TAZARA links the Southern Africa Regional transport network to Eastern Africa, Asia and the rest of the world through the seaport of Dar es Salaam. It connects landlocked Zambia to the seaport of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania through New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia, which provides road and railway inter-connectivity to the rest of southern Africa and other parts of Zambia. The railway line covers a total distance of 1,860km from Dar es Salaam to New Kapiri Mposhi.