COSATU+Statement+for+May+Day+2005

=COSATU Statement for May Day 2005=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is celebrating May Day this year under the theme //Celebrating 20 years of COSATU: taking our 2015 plan to new heights!// (See the programme of rallies attached.)

As well as COSATU’s 20th anniversary, 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of SACTU and the Freedom Charter, and ten years since the LRA was passed, giving workers basic rights. In the context of these anniversaries, we salute the immense contribution made by the heroes and heroines who helped us travel this long distance - Elijah Barayi, JB Marks, Moses Kotane, Ray Alexander, Steven Dlamini, Vuyisile Mini and countless other trade unionists who have made a huge contribution to building trade unions and fighting for our freedom.

When we celebrate COSATU’s 20th Anniversary in December, we will make a statement to the country about our power, our unity and our aims. We aim to paint Durban red with our t-shirts and caps, as all workers find their way to the celebration.

1 May 2005 is the 119th anniversary of May Day, which when police killed six workers in a demonstration for a 40-hour week in Chicago. Since then, workers have made this day their own. In South Africa, even before it was a legal holiday, workers took this day for themselves. COSATU intends to go back to that spirit of independence and militancy in order to take on the new challenges we face today.

When we formed COSATU 20 years ago, we had two main tasks: to defend our members against exploitation by employers, and to fight for the liberation of our people. Today, we have succeeded in the second task. Apartheid is consigned to history - something young people have to study in schools. Its legacy is however still entrenched in massive inequalities, the unemployment crisis, poor working conditions for many workers, and state structures that must still be transformed to serve our people.

Over the past eleven years of freedom workers have made huge political and social gains. Our democracy provides political space to lobby and agitate for our interests as workers and society. Millions of us now have access to electricity, water, health, education, etc.

In economic terms however, the first decade of freedom belongs to the capitalist class, who have gained much more than the working class. Their confidence is at a record high. They have moved billions out of the economy and invested it all over Africa and the world. CEOs have been voting themselves increases of up to 300%. Some now earn up to R15 million per annum. Many of their companies have listed in the London and New York Stock Exchanges. Productivity has been growing at 3% on average.

But for workers things have been tough. Unemployment has doubled from 15% to 30% last year. Casualisation and the growth of atypical forms of work has become a phenomenon. Workers’ wages have stagnated and their share of national income has declined from 52% to 46% this. Poverty remains extremely high. Inequalities remain firmly in place, but now with a class dimension arising from the growth of a middle class in black communities.

This situation must change. The next decade must see more economic benefits for workers, so that our political freedom does not translate only into a ballot paper at five-year intervals. We face four main challenges:


 * 1. The latest tidal wave of job losses**

In the past few weeks, we have heard that more than 6000 jobs are to go with the liquidation of DRDGold’s North West operations; Harmony Gold wants to retrench a further 4900 on top of the 8000 they cut last year; and the Rex Trueform factory is threatened with closure with the loss of 1000 jobs. Prestige Lingerie in Durban is closing with 750 jobs.

Between 1996 and 2004 over 100 000 jobs have been lost in the clothing and textile industry, 40 000 since the start of 2003 alone. In just one poor, small town, Dimbaza in the Eastern Cape, the clothing industry has been virtually wiped out. It employs less than 800 workers, whereas three years ago it provided around 6000.

Unemployment is clearly the number one problem for workers and our economy. Job losses have reached catastrophic levels. The recent Alliance Summit agreed on urgent action to address this critical problem. The government must end its silence, declare that this is a national emergency and take drastic measures to save and create jobs. COSATU demands urgent action from business and government:

First, as the Alliance Summit agreed, the government must work toward a competitive value of the rand, to stop undercutting our industries. The high rand has led to a flood of imports and undermined the profitability of the mining industry. This requires strong measures, especially a clear statement by government that the rand is overvalued and a deeper cut in the real interest rate.

Second, business must make much more serious efforts to avoid job losses. Employers should look to retrenchment and closure only as the last resort, since they destroy economic capabilities as well as worsening poverty and inequality. Retailers must stock local goods, rather than imports. The mines must do more to develop local industry, rather than focusing on foreign opportunities.

Third, government must do more to assist businesses to avoid job losses and to help workers confronted by retrenchment. In Cape Town, government is working with unions and the community to save the jobs at Rex Trueform. We need to see similar efforts in mining and other industries. Moreover, as we agreed at the Alliance Summit, the government itself must urgently ensure that its procurement supports local industry.

Finally, we expect the government to move urgently toward special measures for industries threatened by the flood of cheap imports, especially from China, which are fuelled by the overvalued rand. The law provides for measures in such cases, to give industries time to adapt while saving jobs. The government must review its trade strategy to ensure that it stops destroying work and review engagements with other countries, especially China, to ensure that new measures support employment and do not undermine our economy.

The Eighth National Congress instructed us to submit a Section 77 notice on jobs. Practically we are in dispute with government and business on their failure to deal urgently with the jobs crisis. We are awaiting NEDLAC to officially declare that it has considered our Section 77 notices. Once this happens we will immediately issue a notice for rolling mass action that would culminate into a series of national strikes from each province and eventually at national level.

We are building a broad coalition on jobs. We call on all trade unions and civil society formations to join us to save jobs and to demand for creation of quality jobs.


 * 2. Recruitment: organising the unorganised**

Every worker in every workplace must be a COSATU member. We must reach workers wherever they are found, from the biggest industrial complexes to the small sweatshops, from the mines, schools and hospitals to departmental stores, from railroads and buses to farms and taxis. We must organise workers who are vulnerable or unlikely otherwise to join a union - women, casual and temporary workers, farm workers, white workers and other groups who have historically been outside our ranks.

This challenge is important now because restructuring is cutting into our membership and our strength. There has been a shift in jobs from a few big companies to a myriad of small sweatshops and contractors, employing casual workers.

We have seen employment grow in the construction and retail, industries, which offer poor wages and bad working conditions and, worst of all, which largely employ casualised workers. We must find ways to reach all these workers, ensuring that they enjoy the protection of the union. Otherwise they will continue to face abuse, insecurity, long hours and low pay.

This campaign can work only if every union member becomes a recruiter. Every shop steward and organiser must reach out to new members, in their own workplaces and in other factories, farms and mines. We know recruitment is difficult and takes time - but we have to take action for the future of the labour movement and the working class.

To us any worker not organised by a COSATU union is unorganised. Guided by the historic slogan //Organise or Starve!// We must ensure that by 2009 we reach our target of organising four million workers. Our long-term goal is to attain our dream of //One union one industry and one country one federation.// The 2015 plan we adopted in our Eighth National Congress provides us with the strategies to attain these goals.


 * 3. Improving service to members**

Our recruitment campaign and the campaign for jobs will succeed only if members are happy with the protection they receive from the unions through their shop stewards and union officials.

As part of our 2015 plan, we must redouble efforts to ensure that our unions improve service to members, by improving support for shop stewards and organisers, including training and resourcing. Shop stewards remain the cornerstone of our movement. They make everything else work. At the same time, we must strengthen unions’ internal democracy and improve our management systems.

This is a challenge to every COSATU member, shop steward and organiser. We don’t want COSATU to be in the wrong side of history by failing to adapt, and to provide members with more reasons why they must belong to unions!


 * 4. Translating our gains into reality - picking up our gains**

In the past decade, workers have made great gains toward labour rights - in the law books. But we have been less successful in ensuring that all workers benefit from these new protections. On 22 February we launched a campaign with the Department of Labour to ensure that we empower, educate and generally assist members and shop stewards to take advantage of the new labour laws.

This May Day we celebrate that the sectoral determination for the taxi Industry is coming into effect. Like other sectoral determination protecting farm, domestic and retail workers we must ensure that these minimum working conditions and minimum wages are enforced and complied with by employers. If we don’t achieve this, then these sectoral determinations are as good as not being there.

__International solidarity__
May Day is the day for international working-class solidarity. COSATU extends its hand to the oppressed workers of the world, including those in Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Burma, Colombia and all other regions where workers face exploitation and oppression.

The core message of May Day every year is that we cannot enjoy worker rights while other workers remain enslaved, both in other countries and even here, on the farms, as domestic workers, or in informal and casual labour. Our back-to-basics campaign aims to strengthen our organisation and organise the unorganised, to serve our members and protect workers’ rights in the workplace and across our society.

All these campaigns are interrelated. We can never hope to recruit and have more members when workers’ jobs are being massacred every day, or if our members are not happy with the service they receive from their unions! We cannot hope to pick up our legal gains if we are unorganised and have weak unions that don’t train members, leaders and officials to use the labour laws. To build our movement, we must take all these campaigns forward.

RALLIES
COSATU is organising major rallies throughout the country on May Day, Sunday 1 May 2005. All will begin at 11,00. In addition to top speakers from COSATU, the SACP and the ANC, there will be performances by the cream of the country’s musical talent.

They include Thandiswa Mazwai and Malaika at the national rally in Tembisa, and Mafikizolo in Durban, and many others in various provinces. The details of venues and speakers are as follows:


 * GAUTENG - NATIONAL RALLY**

Venue: Mehlareng Stadium, Tembisa Speakers: Willie Madisha [COSATU President], Blade Nzimande [SACP General Secretary], Linda Mnonezulu, [SANCO GS], Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula [Home Affairs Minister].

Guests: President Thabo Mbeki, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana, Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, Premier Sam Shilowa, Ekurhuleni Mayor Duma Nkosi.

Buses for Tembisa rally. All will be leaving at 08,00 on Sunday 1 May from the following pick-up points:

__VOSLOORUS,__ Leondale Phumula shopping complex Vosloorus Lesedi shopping complex Spruitview shopping complex __THOKOZA,__ Tennis Court __WATTVILLE,__ Day Care Centre __DAVEYTON__, Mall __RATANDA,__ Central Police Station Clinic Extension 7 __DUDUZA,__ Freedom Square __KWATHEMA,__ Civic Centre __TSAKANE,__ Farranani multi-purpose centre __KRUGERSDORP, Kagi__so Town Hall __JOHANNESBURG,__ 29 Rissik Street, Gandhi Square __SOWETO__ Ipelegeng Dobsonville shopping centre Phiri PCO offices Pimville Square PCO officesd __ALEXANDRA,__ St Kopano Centre __ORANGE FARM,__ Chris Hani Hall __KAALFONTEIN MINE,__ Apollo Bricks, Witkoppies __BOKSBURG MINE,__ ERPM, next to Hyperama (Cinderella) __NEW VAAL-VAAL,__ Vaal __PACERDOME MINE,__ Kloof __REL MINE,__ Randfontein __IVORY PARK__ Ivory Park Fire Station Ivory Park Community Hall Rabie Ridge Community Hall Ebony Park paying point KATLEHONG DH Community Hall Katlehong High School Production Centre Moleketi @6

TSHWANE Atteridgeville Community Hall Soshanguve Transfere Ga-rankuwa sports ground Mabopane Walter garage 270 Struben Street, Pretoria