COSATU+backs+Transnet+workers



=**COSATU backs Transnet workers**=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions fully supports the Transnet workers in their dispute over the restructuring plans, and pledges the solidarity of all its 1.7 million members in the mass action they have embarked upon.

The four unions are absolutely right to demand a genuine process of negotiation over the restructuring of the Transnet Group. This applies especially to proposals to privatise Freightdynamics, the Transnet Pension Fund Administration, Autopax and the Blue Train, and also plans to transfer SAA, Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl out of Transnet, and sections of some business units to another within Transnet such as the transfer of some rail engineering workers from Spoornet to Transwerk.

The 30 000 workers who will be affected by these changes must be given cast-iron guarantees that their job security, collective bargaining rights, pensions and travel concessions are fully safeguarded in the proposed restructuring.

COSATU also insists that any restructuring not only protects workers’ rights but also leads to improved services to the hundreds of thousands of commuters who use Transnet’s services daily, and want to see better, safer, and more efficient services, so that they can get to work on time and home safely.

Efficient transport is also crucial for economic growth and the creation of jobs in all the other sectors of the economy. Transnet needs to get the raw materials to the factories and the finished products to the consumers and the ports, as quickly as possible.

It is vital that changes in Transnet are not dictated by narrow considerations of cutting costs and maximising profits. COSATU is pleased that the major parts of Transnet are to remain in public ownership. But we reaffirm that our support for the public ownership of essential services, and opposition to their privatisation, stems from our conviction that that is the best way to provide the most effective services to the people and the country.

That will not happen however if the managers run Transnet as if it was a private company, according to the same capitalist dogma which guides bosses in the private sector. Transnet and other state-owned utilities must be run as efficient public services, and that is only possible with the active involvement of the trade unions.

COSATU therefore condemns Transnet management for their failure to enter into serious discussions around the proposed changes, but to present them as management decisions, not to be amended.

It is scandalous that a company owned by a democratic state should think it can treat its workers in such an arrogant fashion, as if they were running a private company solely to maximise their profits. We expect Transnet to treat the trade unions as their partners in running a national asset in the interest of the people of South Africa.

The Transnet unions are totally right to demand that the employers come back to their negotiation table and start serious discussions. Management must recognise that they are operating in the New South Africa, in which workers have rights, including the right to be fully consulted about matters that affect their lives and futures.

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**

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