COSATU+Weekly+1-7+July

COSATU Weekly

 * //The weekly newsletter for COSATU members and the public 1-7 July 2005//**

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=CONTENTS=


 * 1) Thanks a two million – we could not have asked for more!
 * 2) Massive support from SACTWU workers
 * 3) SADNU’s statement – This is war!
 * 4) SATAWU members drive marchers, then join in
 * 5) International solidarity
 * 6) The decline in employment
 * 7) 4% wage offer is a good start, but can be improved, says NUM
 * 8) Richards Bay protests
 * 9) Trade liberalization leads to job losses – says civil society
 * 10) Freedom Charter anniversary hailed
 * 11) BIG Coalition hosts Poverty Summit

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 * 1. Thanks a two million – we could not have asked for more!**

Thank you all for your support for COSATU on Monday’s stayaway to demand an end to joblessness and poverty. You have made a clear statement to both employers and the government that they must do more to address the current crisis of retrenchments, to support job creation, and to improve conditions of work.

Huge demonstrations were held in all the major centres as well as many smaller towns, including – for the first time ever – in Ulundi. In addition, millions of workers stayed away from work. Many major employers reported that they had had to limit or close down production for the day.

The strike was backed by a host of civil society organisations, including the SACP, the Communist Youth League, the ANC Youth League, the SACC, SANGOCO and the student movement. COSATU appreciates their support.

The extent of support confirms that unemployment and job losses are by far the biggest concern of our people. It also highlights the power of organised workers, which neither business nor government can afford to ignore. Unemployment and poverty should be declared a national emergency with every government policy redirected to priorities creation of decent work.

Well over two million workers supported the strike, with at least half a million participating in more than 20 marches in all the provinces on our country. This points to support from workers who are not COSATU’s members, including Solidarity which backed the strike.

Various factors point to mass support for the action.


 * Most of the mines, auto producers, engineering and clothing factories admit to complete or partial closure as a result of the strike. They include VW, Mercedes Benz and Toyota; in clothing, Spilo, House of Monatic, Charmfit, Playtex, Durban Clothing, Aranda Blanket, Standerton Mills, Da Gama and Industex; and almost all the platinum and gold mines. Telkom was closed in Rustenburg, as was Pick’n’Pay in Polokwane. Highveld Steel shut down.
 * The size of the demonstrations nationwide in themselves suggests huge and unprecedented support. As always, many workers who joined the strike did not participate in the demonstrations. Still, the extent of the marches points to strong support.
 * The transport network in many areas, including buses hired by unions, was overwhelmed by those going to the demonstration. Entire city blocks in downtown Johannesburg were clogged with buses hired by workers. In many areas, for instance in Atlantis in the Western Cape, workers were unable to attend the demonstration for lack of transport. With more busses and trains available, we would have seen even bigger numbers in the marches.

The national and provincial public service, and especially the health and security sectors, was not legally allowed to strike. Most other public servants work in education, but the schools are on leave so it was impossible to assess their support. According to NEHAWU, many workers in the rest of the public sector supported the strike.

SACOB and some conservative so-called labour analysts have tried to play down the impact of the strike. There are various reasons for this:


 * Employers have an interest in denying the strength of workers’ organisation, both to undercut its voice in national debates and to sway public opinion. In every strike, at enterprise, sectoral or national level, employers routinely understate workers’ participation.
 * Employer organisations do not have systems to get systematic reports from member companies, so their assessments of worker participation in national strikes are inevitably based on ideological stances and anecdotes rather than comprehensive surveys.

In contrast, COSATU put in place a comprehensive monitoring network across the length and breadth of our country. Every industrial area in the country, every town and rural area had a person reporting to the 160 COSATU locals, which in turn fed information to our provinces and Head Office. Every COSATU union had similar monitoring mechanisms.

In the circumstances, the press should seek to verify strike reports directly in the workplace. Where that is not possible, at least they should take employer reports with a pinch of salt, and weigh them against the reports of COSATU’s monitors.

We salute our members for the disciplined manner in which they conducted themselves.


 * 2. Massive support from SACTWU workers**

Approximately 86% of workers in the clothing, textile and leather industries nationally - 159 100 out of a total of 185 000 workers employed nationally in the industry - supported the protest action against job losses.

This was based on a survey conducted by the union, covering 291 clothing, textile and leather companies employing a total of 59 279 workers, nationally. This represents a sample of 56% of SACTWU’s 105 328 members nationally.

In the Western Cape, 82% workers in the industry supported the protest action. Workers left their workplaces after the morning tea break, to join the protest action. Large companies such Spilo in Paarl (with 400 workers), House of Monatic in Salt River (with 970 workers), Cygnet in Epping (with 400 workers), and Charmfit in Epping (with 800 workers) were completely closed.

In KZN, 89% of workers in the industry supported the protest action. Large companies such Playtex in Durban (with 1 400 workers), and Durban Clothing Manufacturers (with 800 workers) were completely closed.

In Gauteng, 89% of workers in the industry supported the protest action. Large companies such Aranda Blanket Manufacturers (with 500 workers), and Standerton Mills in Standerton (with 500 workers) were completely closed.

In the Eastern Cape, 92% of the industry supported the protest action. Large companies such Da Gama in Zwelistha (with 1 600 workers), and Industex in Port Elizabeth (with 600 workers) were completely closed.


 * 3. SADNU’s statement – This is war!**

We have, since the early part of this year, witnessed the spate of retrenchments and closures of factories, unprecedented in our democratic era - a clear agenda of the capitalist class – profits first, people and lives second.

The scenario which played itself out at Durban Roodepoort Deep and Harmony Gold Mines, as well as clothing and textile factories - the cruel hand of capital in operation - brought to our homes through the electronic and print media, deepened poverty among the oppressed masses and the working class. Indeed the first five years of this millennium have presented many challenges – privatisation, outsourcing of functions, casualisation, growth of the informal sector, violation of workers’ rights in many factories, discrimination, racism … and now this. Through the loss of one job 20+ mouths are robbed of food.

This is a declaration of war on the working class. No one will defend the working class but the working class itself. At a time of celebrating our second decade of freedom – the people shall govern and fifty years of Freedom Charter – there shall be jobs for all, the wounds of joblessness are gaping further and further. The working class is bleeding.

June 27 is only the beginning, but also the climax. Rolling mass action has to ensue until capital comes to its senses. We must be spurred on by the spirit of Elijah Barayi, Moses Kotane, JB Marx, Ruth First, Vuyisile Mini, Ray Alexandra … as we march onto war: fighting for quality jobs and living wages. Fighting poverty and defending and consolidating our gains.

Towards Socialism,

Freddie Mohai, General Secretary


 * 4. SATAWU members drive marchers, then join in**

SATAWU members joined throngs of marchers who took part in one of the largest strikes of the new South Africa. This action brought the country to a stand still as workers affiliated to COSATU took part in a national day of mass action across South Africa. A handful of members of rival union, UASA, also took part in the strike as a show of support and other non-COSATU members also pledged solidarity by vowing not to do work left by striking workers

This signified the first day of a series of national days of mass action that COSATU has planned to bring publicity to the crisis of job losses as well as the current waive of casualisation of the work place. It is expected to be a monthly event.

The strike was hailed as a major success by COSATU leaders with President Willie Madisha and Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi calling capital to ignore COSATU at their own peril. Business associations were at pains to discredit it as having been less successful than it was proclaimed, but even the most conservative estimates still put the cost of the strike at close to R200 million.

Major centres, such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth were virtually ground to a stand still as marchers peacefully wound their way through the streets, in what some commentators have called a “show of force”. For the first time in recent history even Ulundi, the heartland of KwaZulu Natal and home of the Inkatha Freedom Party took part in this march.


 * 5. International solidarity**

From the Nigeria Labour Congress

Dear Comrade Zweli,

I wish to convey to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) the solidarity and best wishes of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on your strike/mass campaign over the growing unemployment situation and the harsh impact of neoliberal policies on South African workers and people.

We fully support the concerns that COSATU is canvassing. The strike is the tonic that is really needed to put on the agenda the fundamental goals of the national democratic revolution and to ensure that the people truly benefit materially from the national liberation struggle. In this respect, it brings to sharper relief the positive and objective role of COSATU’s transformative unionism.

Nigeria Labour Congress commends and salutes the passion and resolve demonstrated by COSATU. We wish you a positive outcome in this campaign and indeed in the overall efforts to continue to empower the South African working class to deal with the challenges of the national democratic revolution.

Please convey our solidarity and best wishes to the office-bearers, regional structures, affiliates, shop-stewards, activists and the entire membership of COSATU.

Accept as always the renewed assurances of our highest esteem and my warmest personal regards.

Fraternal yours, for and on behalf of Nigeria Labour Congress:

Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, President And from British TUC

Dear Comrade Vavi

I wish to convey to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) the solidarity and best wishes of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on your strike today and subsequent mass campaign over the growing unemployment situation and the harsh impact of neoliberal policies on South African workers and people.

We share the concerns that COSATU and hundreds of thousands of South African trade unionists are expressing.

Tomorrow, we will be taking part in a global union delegation to see Prime Minister Blair about the G8 summit next week, and calling on him and other G8 leaders to ensure that trade negotiations are accompanied by an ongoing assessment of their employment impact, with international funding and short-term safeguard measures where necessary to address the disarray following, for example, the end of the textile quotas, which we know have hit South Africa and others in the region hard. We will also tell him that quality employment must be at the heart of the agenda to both cut global poverty and reduce economic insecurity for workers whose jobs are threatened by globalisation. At the very least, WTO agreements must not undermine labour standards.

In particular, we endorse your calls on the South African government to:

· urgently review the trade strategy for imports, especially textiles, from China which has led to job losses in South Africa; · stop the privatisation of basic services; and · protect vulnerable industries, pursue local procurement and prioritise employment growth.

We wish you a positive outcome in your campaign. Please convey our solidarity and best wishes to all our friends in South Africa.

Yours in solidarity, Brendan Barber, General Secretary


 * 6. The decline in employment**

Just a day after the general strike COSATU’s concerns were officially vindicated when it was revealed that there had indeed been a drop in the number of workers employed.

“It is obviously ironic,” said a COSATU, “that one day after the massive strike against unemployment, job losses and poverty, Statistics SA has released data showing a substantial decline in employment in the first quarter of 2005. Falling employment gives renewed weight to the call by millions of workers yesterday for far more urgent action to address the unemployment crisis and restructure the economy toward sustainable, job-creating growth.

“The new figures show that formal non-farm employment fell by about 136 000 - almost 2%. The fastest drop was in business services and finance, which declined by 8%; retail, which fell 2%; and mining and manufacturing, which contracted by under 1%. “COSATU has long warned that the expansion in employment in the past two years was not sustainable, since it was due largely to growth in construction and retail jobs while the productive core of the economy stagnated. The latest data reinforce these concerns.

“The data come from the new, more comprehensive employer survey, which means they cannot yet take seasonal factors into account. Nonetheless, they are grim news for the millions of South African families who already suffer from the effects of mass unemployment and poverty.

“The Minister for Trade and Industry has correctly stressed that only sectoral and enterprise strategies can ensure long-term development and competitiveness. Indeed, COSATU has long argued that development requires much more coherent industrial policies.

“But that does not mean that we can simply ignore all other impediments to economic development. Calling on companies to compete while the currency remains overvalued is like asking our Olympic swimmers to participate with their hands tied together. Moreover, it is a fallacy to argue that the market led to the current overvaluation of the rand, given the strong role of the Reserve Bank in the past two years in talking up the rand and maintaining high real interest rates.


 * 7. 4% wage offer is a good start, but can be improved, says NUM**

The collieries in the Chamber of Mines wage negotiations have taken a step different to their gold counterparts by opening with a wage increase of 4%. This showed consistency with the manner in which they began this round of wage negotiations at the very beginning.

“We appreciate the offer by the coal producers. We think it is a good start but they can improve it substantially. Certainly it is heartening when viewed in contrast to the one tabled by the gold producers yesterday. We would, however, wish that they would make an offer closer to if not a final offer when we meet again, because we do not intend moving at a snail pace on these matters”, Gwede Mantashe, NUM General Secretary.

Today’s offer of a 4% wage increase is a great improvement to that of the gold producers. It not only beats that of gold but begins right about the CPIX. Unfortunately it also falls short in that it is not necessarily far from the CPIX and doesn’t go far enough in addressing improvement in the conditions of our members.

There is relative progress in some aspects of the wages negotiations, for example, mobility of retirement funds separation between risk and retirement benefits and the Christmas break. On the other hand, all issues pertaining to the implementation of the 2003/5 wage agreement and the living out allowance are still to be resolved, hence the continued bilateral discussions between employers and the union to bring finality, but not renegotiate, to the issues.

Cognisant of the work still to be covered in the bilateral and the research collieries have to complete, the parties agreed to adjourn and meet on July 12-13


 * 8. Richards Bay protests**

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has deplored the arrest of 90 job seekers at Richards Bay Minerals and the use of rubber bullets and pepper spray against demonstrators. These tactics are a return to the methods of the apartheid police state and are totally unacceptable.

The anger of these unemployed workers vindicates COSATU’s concern that the unemployment crisis is becoming a national emergency and that the anger of the unemployed and poor is bubbling to the surface. COSATU appealed to all these, and other unemployed workers to channel their anger positively by swelling the ranks of the marches against job losses on 27 June, and join the growing numbers who are determined to get unemployment down and stop any more job losses.


 * 9. Trade liberalization leads to job losses – says civil society**

SANGOCO and the South African Council of Churches (SACC), at a workshop about the current negotiations underway at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), came out in support of COSATU’s campaign on protecting jobs and stopping job losses. The workshop was called to discuss the world trade negotiations on NAMA – the non- agricultural market access, which strongly promotes trade liberalization.

COSATU’s Deputy President Violet Seboni, called on all present to organize against job losses, by “taking action and drawing a line to say that unemployment and poverty are too high. We must draw a line now and say that job loss as a result of trade liberalisation must stop, and must stop now. The NAMA proposals at the WTO will only exacerbate trade liberalization and job loss. They will also prevent us from developing our economies as the developed countries did. This can only be disastrous for us.”

She added that “any trade union worthy of being called a trade union must defend members’ jobs. All progressive organizations must defend the working class in the workplace and the communities, and stop multinational and corporate interests pushing for trade liberalizations through undemocratic processes in the WTO – because these will only open the door to job losses and increased poverty. COSATU called for increased unity of all civil society organizations to stop the job-loss bloodbath.”

The workshop agreed that South Africa’s trade negotiators must do an audit of the negotiations “past and present” to determine who the winners and losers are. “In all cases, the workers and the poor were the losers” the workshop concluded. Participants from different sectors organized by COSATU testified to the negative impacts of trade liberalization.

SANGOCO’s executive director Zanele Twala, said that we must build civil society capacity and public awareness around the complex trade negotiations. “It is important to be informed and fight the unfair issues at the negotiations, as failure to do this will make our fight against Apartheid look like a picnic.”

Desmond Lesejane – said that the SACC Executive Council came out in support of COSATU’s jobs campaign. “The people and families are losing jobs and dying because of the scourge of poverty – which are not covered by the statistics” he added.


 * 10. Freedom Charter anniversary hailed**

The Congress of South African Trade unions has hailed the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter. “This historic document and the Congress of the People which adopted it on 26 June 1955,” said a COSATU statement, “inspired the struggle against apartheid and today are the basis for our demands for labour rights, economic justice, and an open and democratic public service.

“Every significant political statement from the liberation movement since 1955 has referred back to that momentous declaration. It is still quoted in speeches by government, civic and trade unions leaders.

“But is it still relevant today?” asks the federation. “Over the past eleven years, we have made great strides forward in achieving some of the Charter’s demands. Since 1994, every man and woman has been able to take part in the administration of the country, as demanded in the Charter, through their right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all government at all levels.

“Our democratic constitution goes a long way to providing our people with “equal rights and opportunities” as the Charter requires. All racist apartheid laws and practices have been outlawed and the section declaring that all national groups shall have equal rights is now the law of the land, even if not all racism has been eliminated.

“We have to admit however that we are yet to implement the section that declared that the people shall share in the country's wealth. The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, has not yet been restored to the people. The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry have not been transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole, as the Charter required. A small number of giant, still mainly white-owned, companies hold sway over our economy.

“Although all who work are now free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers, it is manifestly not yet the case that “the state shall recognise the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits” or that “men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for equal work” that “there shall be a forty-hour working week, a national minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working mothers.”

“Workers in particular have a long struggle ahead to achieve these parts of the Freedom Charter. While we have been forging ahead on the political and human rights front, we are lagging far behind in the battle for economic freedom. The right to work is a fiction for the more than 22 million people who still live in poverty because unemployment remains at over 40 % of the working population.

“That is why on the day after the anniversary, Monday 27 June, workers in their thousands will be leaving work and taking to the streets to demonstrate their anger at the catastrophic loss of jobs and the poverty and misery that unemployment brings with it. These workers are carrying forward the spirit of the Freedom Charter and making its demands relevant to today.

“For fifty years, South African patriots and revolutionaries have fought under the banner of the Freedom Charter. Today, we must take this tradition forward. The Charter’s far-reaching demands are as relevant today as in the 1950s. It will help us to remain focused on those important parts of our struggle which we have not yet achieved but which are vital if we are serious about liberating our people and transforming their lives.”


 * 11. BIG Coalition hosts Poverty Summit**

On Monday 27 June 2005, civil society activists from around South Africa gathered at Booysens Hotel, Johannesburg, to deliberate on the key national question of poverty. The theme was “Closing the Poverty Gap” and the purpose of the gathering was to:

· analyse the present poverty alleviation policy context; · re-commit to the principle of Comprehensive Social Protection (Including BIG); · chart a way forward to forging a closer partnership with all concerned about poverty.

“We meet on an auspicious day: it will be the day after the Freedom Charter’s 50th Anniversary will have been celebrated nation-wide. We will celebrate this document by insisting that the wealth of the country belongs to all who live in it, and that it should be shared by all who live in it,” said Pumi Yeni, National Organiser of the BIG Coalition. “The gap between the rich and the poor is no accident: it is because the principles enshrined in the Freedom Charter have not been adhered to that we have the levels of poverty that we have. The reason that we have failed to meet the basics of the Freedom Charter is because of the economic policies that govern us and keep the majority of our people in misery and poverty.”

President of COSATU, Willie Madisha, told the Summit: “We continue to call for the introduction of a universal Basic Income Grant in South Africa. At the very least, it will be a safety net for the poorest of the poor in our country and affirm their citizenship and dignity as South Africans who share in the country’s wealth. But more than that: it has become clear that grants are developmental and that health, nutrition, education and even employment are positively affected by grants. We therefore see a BIG not as a hand-out, but as a right, an investment in the future of our country and a developmental tool at this stage of our country’s history.”

Congress of South African Trade Unions 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets Braamfontein, 2017
 * Patrick Craven (Editor, Shopsteward Journal)

P.O.Box 1019 Johannesburg, 2000 South Africa

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24 Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940 E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za**