A spokesman for U.S. labor organization whose delegation to Zimbabwe was refused entry and deported from the Southern African country last week said the Coalition of Black Trade Unions will increase pressure on Harare to respect human rights.
The CBTU delegation, which included union founder-president William Lucy, obtained visas from Zimbabwe's Washington embassy for an education-study tour of organized labor in Zimbabwe, said spokesman Glenn Lesak of the Solidarity Center, a branch of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO.
The Coalition of Black Trade Unions is a member union of the AFL-CIO.
Lesak, a Solidarity Center senior program officer for Africa, told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyele of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that while the delegation's deportation was a disappointment, it did not come as a complete surprise.