Cosatus+voice+rings+louder+and+stronger,+Star

The Star, Johannesburg, August 11, 2005
=Cosatu's voice rings louder and stronger=


 * By Moshoeshoe Monare**

Cosatu's resolve early this year to exert its weight and influence in the ANC, the alliance, government and business, has gained a radical momentum as workers embark on nationwide strikes.

The federation's mass leverage and the effect of its work force on the economy has so far left business and government reeling with the aftermath of protests and other industrial action.

It did not come as a surprise to hear Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi saying last weekend that the envisaged formation of a civic-labour coalition in the form of the United Democratic Front was "the working class on the run".

A secretary-general of one of the Cosatu-affiliated unions, who refused to be named, said this week that "no one - from the ANC, government to business and the elite - can ignore us. We have rippled the economic and political waters".

However, he said that even though the current wave of strikes coincided with the bargaining season, the effect "gives (political) credit to Cosatu".

Cosatu and its affiliates have unleashed a volley of industrial action in the past two months, which includes:


 * Cosatu's marches in major cities in June saw Johannesburg grinding to a standstill when more than 40 000 supporters took to the streets. Countrywide the figure was estimated at 100 000;
 * Through the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union, the country's air service temporarily collapsed during the SAA strike that resulted in the grounding of domestic airline days and losses amounting to millions of rands;
 * Municipalities were trashed and major services have been disrupted as the strike led by the Cosatu-affiliated SA Municipal Workers Union resumed this week after a short break;
 * The health services could see unprecedented disruption if the National Education, Health and Allied workers Union, another Cosatu affiliate, acts on its threats of a strike at most health laboratories;
 * The SA Democratic Teachers Union could not rule out a chalk-down towards matric exams following the nine-year salary back-payment backlog. Sadtu secretary-general Thulas Nxesi says the "employer is arrogant";
 * Public servants could also rise up after Cosatu accused the government of unilaterally restructuring the medical insurance scheme.

"We will resist that," Nxesi says.

In the words of Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of Cosatu's most influential affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers, "every wheel of every shaft shall come to a standstill this week".

The gold mining strike, described by international news networks and agencies as the largest in 18 years, resulted in 75% of the work force - estimated at 100 000 miners - downing tools.

The Chamber of Mines conceded yesterday that the strike was crippling the industry at a cost of more than R130-million a day, according to the chamber's chief negotiator, Frans Barker.

The miners are demanding between 8% and 12% increases while the Chamber of Mines is offering a 5% increase for miners and 4,5% for higher-income workers.

As one of the world's largest gold producers, South Africa's mining industry is hard hit by a stronger rand, an issue that Cosatu raised repeatedly with the ANC and government.

On the other hand, suburban residents and commuters felt the pinch of the municipal strike as waste collection, service payments and buses stopped due to the Samwu strike.

The municipalities were double hit this year following residents revolting against the slow pace of delivery.

With local elections less than six months away and Cosatu aligning itself with the social movement and white unions such as Solidarity, the ANC is gnashing its teeth in anxiety.

The labour unrest appears to be a testimony to the resolve that the union seeks to be felt and heard by shaking the economy and civil service - from mineshafts and factories to the municipal streets and public service.

So far there is some indication that the union may be winning its battle for the influence of government and the ruling party's economic, labour and other political policies.

Implied victories include:


 * Cosatu openly criticised the ANC's proposals on the twin-labour market ahead of the ruling party's national general council (NGC) at the end of June. The proposal was rejected by the NGC;
 * At the same NGC Cosatu and its leftist ally, the SA Communist Party, ganged up with the ANC's internal radicals in support of the organisation's beleaguered president, Jacob Zuma - a battle that saw the populist leader being welcomed in from the cold;
 * Defence Minister and ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota was heard suggesting to one of the NGC commissions that Vavi should become an ANC NEC member. This is in sharp contrast to when the ANC's centrist lobby blocked the nomination of NUM's Mantashe to the NEC at the 2002 Stellenbosch conference;
 * Although Cosatu was not instrumental in spearheading the land redistribution and restitution campaign, the call by its ally - the SACP - saw government publicly admitting that the willing buyer willing seller principle was not working, tacitly suggesting an expropriation route;
 * A link could not be established, but hardly a month after Cosatu made a noise about Zimbabwe, the government had hardened its attitude towards Harare;
 * Hardly four weeks ago, a cabinet lekgotla agreed on Cosatu's perennial qualm - the rate of casualisation. President Thabo Mbeki also used a term coined by Cosatu president Willie Madisha, saying that casualisation was creating a layer of "the working poor";
 * Mbeki said this week that the ANC needed to implement the resolutions of alliance summit, a core demand by Cosatu;
 * The same lekgotla agreed that resolutions of the Growth and Development Summit - a Cosatu-pushed forum - should be considered as a way of speeding up economic growth and job creation, and;
 * Mbeki conceded after the cabinet lekgotla that there was a need for a competitive rand, which would strike a balance between a strong exporting and domestic economy.

When Cosatu's central executive committee meets next week, the feeling among the federation's leaders would be that of "this decade must belong to the workers", as expressed in the union's posters.

However, the street slogans may not necessarily be translated into boardroom, golf-course and cabinet agreements, or policy concessions in the ANC.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2832724**