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Black Rhodesian railroad workers strike for better pay, 1945

Country
Zimbabwe
Zambia
Time period
20 October, 1945 to 4 November, 1945
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
William Lawrence, 15/2/2011

Workers in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, bore an increased workload to support the war effort during WWII. As extraction of mineral resources increased, employees of Rhodesia Railways worked upward of 65 hours per week to transport the minerals to ports on the Indian Ocean. While white European railway workers had strong unions representing them, black African employees received inferior treatment and lower pay grades than whites.