Union demands Chinese boss’s arrest

Police at Oshikango had to be called in to maintain order after representatives of the Namibia Wholesale and Retail Workers Union (NWRWU) and a Chinese hotel manager at Oshikango almost came to blows on Tuesday. The ugly confrontation at the Sun Square Hotel at Oshikango was the result of an incident on Friday in which the hotel’s manger, Peter Wang, allegedly assaulted NWRWU Oshikango branch organiser Gervasius Haimbodi. In a statement to the police on Friday, Haimbodi accused Wang of punching him several times in the face after Haimbodi had refused to divulge information about a list of grievances from hotel employees. The union’s general secretary, Victor Hamunyela, travelled from Windhoek to Oshikango and went to the Sun Square Hotel with other union representatives. The hastily convened meeting with Wang turned ugly after the Chinese manager allegedly refused to accept blame for Haimbodi’s assault and insisted that Haimbodi had attacked him first. Wang also accused Haimbodi of unprofessionalism and trying to organise an illegal strike at his hotel, an accusation that was not received well by the union representatives. The union fired back that Wang habitually mistreats his workers and demanded to meet with the hotel’s owner, Jacky Wang, who is apparently in China at the moment. Once the police were called in, union representatives demanded that Wang be arrested on the assault charge laid by Haimbodi. No arrests were made, and Wang and the union eventually agreed to put their personal issues aside and to meet on November 25 to discuss a demand for salary increases.