LABOUR federation, Cosatu, has taken a resolution that they
will be working with other federations for the common good of workers.
They want to encourage their members that when other unions are on strike in the same factory floors, they should work hand-in-hand with them.
“Of course it must be noted that this is not a new thing, we have been embarking on strikes in the past with some union from opposition federations. It should also be noted again that we are working with other federations at the Nedlac (National Economic Development and labour Council). We encourage our unions to work with others on common goals like the exploitation of workers,’ Cosautu president, Zingisa Losi said.
The Cosatu leadership was addressing the media following their three-day Central Executive Committee meeting.
The CEC also took, among others, resolutions to fight against retrenchments, demand job creation and campaign to gain control of workers’ pensions.
Cosatu also aims to oppose the privatisation of Eskom and other key strategic SOEs.
The federation’s general secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali said there was nothing wrong with State Owned Enterprises, but the problem was perhaps with management.
Ntshalintshali said: “There’s something that went wrong with SOEs. They used to function well. This notion that SOEs are bad is wrong. We need to sort out management.”
Losi said what was needed was ethical leadership in these companies.
However, Cosatu leaders said there were SOEs that needed to be done away with because they were not relevant to the times we live in.
The leaders said the CEC condemned the leadership of SAA, SA Express, SABC and Eskom for not involving unions in their restructuring plans and for targeting workers.
They also said they were not happy about the stagnant National Minimum Wage (NMW) and said they are not seeing any movement there. They said if the Commissioners who are running the project are not performing, they should quit their jobs.
Ntshalintshali said: “We call on the National Minimum Wage Commission to urgently perform its annual review of National Minimum Wage. The Commission is required by the NMW Act to review the NMW and to ensure that it is protected from inflation etc.
This increase should be implemented by January 2020 and these NMW commissioners should resign if they are unable to do their work. The minister for Employment and Labour must intervene to ensure this happens.”
