COSATU thanks workers for a successful Day of Action

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is pleased, humbled and grateful to the workers who came out in their numbers yesterday and participated in the various activities across the nine provinces in response to our call to mark World Day for Decent Work, which is commemorated annually on 7 October.

It is never an easy decision for workers to embark on strikes and protest action, more so when employers apply the no work, no pay rule. It takes great courage for workers drowning in debt and struggling to cope with the rising cost-of-living to sacrifice a day's wages, yet this is exactly what workers did in their thousands. Workers made this painful sacrifice to send a decisive message to government and business, that enough is enough. Workers expect and deserve better.

We are heartened by the participation of other Federations and unions outside of COSATU. Unemployment and poverty wages do not discriminate based upon the colours of our t-shirts. The clarion call of Karl Marx for workers of the world to unite is more relevant than ever.

Workers took to the streets to shine a powerful spotlight on the painful issues hurting them, their families, communities and the unemployed given the extremely high unemployment rate in the country with 11.3 people needing jobs, accelerating retrenchments, relentless attacks on collective bargaining, the ever-escalating cost-of-living and misguided reckless austerity budget cuts to essential public and municipal services.

COSATU handed over memoranda in all nine provinces to government and business representatives from amongst others; the Department of Employment and Labour, Treasury, Reserve Bank, Business Unity South Africa and Discovery, as a representative of the medical aid industry that is vehemently opposed to the implementation of the National Health Insurance.

In the Highveld region, in support of its Affiliate the National Union of Mineworkers, COSATU handed over a memorandum to the Department of Minerals and Resources calling on it to intervene and stop plans by mining company, Seriti, to retrench more than 1 100 skilled experienced workers and replace them with contractors.

COSATU in the Western Cape marched to the Provincial Legislature and to Parliament to deliver the message that workers emphatically reject plans to privatise state-owned enterprises including the Post Office; the ludicrous plans to cut teachers' jobs; and the relentless attacks on collective bargaining. Speakers addressing the protestors made it crystal clear that all COSATU's Affiliates were ready to defend and strengthen workers' hard-won rights in spite of the Democratic Alliance' antics, with it threatening to have the Employment Equity Act declared unconstitutional, and to stop the National Minimum Wage (NMW) keeping pace with inflation.

In Mpumalanga, workers headed to Sonoma Investment Farm to protest farmworkers being paid less than the NMW, non-compliance with Health and Safety regulations including lack of personal protective equipment, marked increase in the use of child labour on farms, and abuse of fixed-term contracts by rolling over and renewing these contracts for successive terms for work that is not of a limited or definitive duration.

Entities that received memoranda were given 14 days to respond to COSATU's demands. Should we not receive any response by then, the Federation will pursue these entities via the various forums we participate in including the Tripartite Alliance, Nedlac, Parliament, bargaining councils, through public discourse and on the streets.

Whilst these struggles may seem long and not for the faint heartened, COSATU is certain of victory. Just as critics mocked the Federation in the past, we defied them and have won decisive battles from releasing R65 billion from the Unemployment Insurance Fund to help 5.7 million workers during COVID-19, to the National Minimum Wage raising the salaries of 6 million impoverished workers, to the National Health Insurance Act's recent assent to the SRD Grant laying the foundation for a Basic Income Grant, and more recently the Two Pot Pension Reforms giving relief to millions of workers.

COSATU will stop at nothing to ensure the issues raised during the National Day of Action are prioritised and most importantly resolved. We cannot remain silent when the working class is under siege. We will continue to push government and employers to improve the working conditions, wages and lives of workers and their families.

Issued by COSATU

Zanele Sabela(COSATU National Spokesperson)

Mobile: 079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639

Email: [email protected]

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