Taking COSATU Today Forward, 24 June 2026
Norman Mampane
|
COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 This weekend, #NEHAWU scheduled to convene its 13th National Congress at Boksburg #WorkerControl #NationaActionAgainstCostOfLiving #ClassWar #Cosatu40 #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness |
Taking COSATU Today Forward
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Maoo
Our side of the story
24 June 2026
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
Organize at every workplace and demand respect for labour rights Now!
Defend Jobs Now!
Join COSATU NOW!
Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- Media Alert: COSATU will present its submission on the Special Pensions Amendment Bill to Parliament on 24 June 2026
- CEPPWAWU welcomes landmark Labour Court victory for 24 dismissed workers at Hoya Lens South Africa (Pty) Ltd
- IndustriALL Global Union is looking for an Administrative and Event Assistant for Sub-Saharan Africa Regional office (Johannesburg)
- NEHAWU to convene its 13th National Congress
- South Africa
- SACP appreciates the people of South Africa for their participation in the voter registration weekend towards the local government elections
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Bangladesh shipbreaking unions step up organizing to win living wages and safer yards
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics #ClassWar
Media
Alert: COSATU will present its submission on the Special Pensions Amendment Bill to Parliament on 24 June 2026
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 23 June 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will present its submission on the Special Pensions Amendment Bill to Parliament’s Standing Committee: Finance, from 09:00 on Wednesday, 24 June (virtual platform).
Issued by COSATU
______________________
Public Event: Making green industrial policy just: the role of governments, trade unions and multilateral development banks
Date: Thursday 25th June 2026
Time: 10:30-12:30 BST (09:30-11:30 UTC)
Venue: online and at International Transport Federation House, 49 - 60 Borough Rd, London SE1 1DR, United Kingdom
Registration link: Zoom link (please indicate whether you will attend in-person or online) In-person registration closes on 15th June
For any questions, please contact Luca Lueschen at luca.lusc...@ituc-csi.org
Event languages: English and Spanish (interpretation in English, Spanish and French)
Agenda
Moderator: Giulia Laganà, Director, Just Transition & Climate, ITUC
10:30 - Welcome
Gemma Swart, Director of Global Campaigns & Operations, International Transport Federation
10:40 - Keynote speech
Amir Lebdioui, Director, TIDE (Technology and Industrialisation for Development) Centre, Oxford University
11:00 - Panel discussion: MDBs & industrial policy: no longer taboo? And is it both green and just?
Chair: Rouguiatou Diallo, Economic Research Officer, ITUC liaison office to the International Financial Institutions
Tristan Reed, Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank (online)
Dimitri Koufos, Associate Director, Climate Strategy and Delivery, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Ioannis Gkoutzamanis, Energy & Climate Change Policy Officer, Greek General Confederation of Labour
11:45 - Panel discussion: Spain, South Africa and the United Kingdom, drivers of green industrial policy?
Chair: Diana Junquera Curiel, Director, Industrial Policy & Just Transition, IndustriAll Global Union
Judit Carreras Garcia, Director, Just Transition Institute – Spain
Angél Rubio Gomez, Coordinator, Climate Action & Just Ecological Transition, Unión General de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores (UGT)
Dorah Modise, Executive Director, South African Presidential Climate Commission
Boitumelo Molete, Social Development Policy Coordinator, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
Ali Poncia, Industrial Policy Lead at the UK's Trades Union Congress (TUC)
12:30 – Wrap up followed by light lunch
___________________________
NEHAWU to convene its 13th National Congress
Lwazi Nkolonzi, NEHAWU National Spokesperson, June 08, 2026
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] will hold its 13th National Congress at the Birchwood Hotel & Conference Centre in Boksburg from the 26th to 29th of June 2026.
The congress is convened under the theme “Advance Workplace Organisation to Defend Collective Bargaining, Heighten Class Consciousness and Advance Internationalism".
The congress will serve as a critical platform to deliberate and develop concrete responses to key international, national political and socio-economic matters as well as organisational matters affecting our members and the working class in general.
The congress will receive addresses from the African National Congress [ANC], South African Communist Party [SACP], Congress of South African Trade Unions [COSATU], World Federation of Trade Unions [WFTU] and Trade Union International Public Service & Allied [TUI – PS&A].
The congress will be attended by more than 750 delegates drawn from all structures of the union and other fraternal organizations from South Africa and Internationally.
Members of the media are hereby invited to apply for accreditation to cover the 13th National Congress.
The following information should be included in the application: Full name, Media House, and contact details.
The deadline for accreditation applications is Friday 19th June 2026.
The application for accreditation should be sent to the following email: lwa...@nehawu.org.za
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat
For further information, please contact: Lwazi Nkolonzi (National Spokesperson) at 081 558 2335 or email: lwa...@nehawu.org.za
Visit NEHAWU website: www.nehawu.org.za
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
SACP appreciates the people of South Africa for their participation in the voter registration weekend towards the local government elections
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
The South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys its message of appreciation to the millions of South Africans who came out to register and update their voter details this past voter registration weekend ahead of the 2026 local government elections. We also acknowledge the efficiency demonstrated by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) during the registration period as well as other government institutions which assisted citizens in their registration.
The IEC’s report on Monday shows that the Commission recorded over 2.9 million registration transactions – an improvement from the 1.7 million transactions recorded during the voter registration weekend for the comparable election in 2021 – of which 477,174 were first-time registrations. A total of 28.5 million registered voters are now on the voters’ roll, about 55.25 per cent of whom are female.
The SACP is also heartened by young people who came out in their numbers, as a total 785,078 young people aged 29 or younger participated in the registration. We encourage more young people to actively engage their country in the governance of the country by voting in November, as they also have a role to protect and take forward the country’s democracy.
We thank all SACP volunteers who braved the cold weather across the country for their untiring work in the ongoing SACP elections campaign programme. We encourage them to continue listening to communities and assisting wherever possible as the SACP prepares for the elections.
The SACP urges the people of South Africa to again come out in the second voter registration weekend scheduled for 1–2 August 2026. To strengthen public trust and ensure that all votes are counted and accounted for, we also call upon the IEC to ensure that all its systems and technology operate efficiently to cope with the projected large volume of voters on 4 November. In the same vein, we call for government departments to take practical measures to assist communities that face registration and voting difficulties due to poor infrastructure, particularly in the rural areas, to enable them to exercise their democratic right to vote.
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID
International-Solidarity
Bangladesh shipbreaking unions step up organizing to win living wages and safer yards
24 June, 2026
IndustriALL Global Union has completed a three-day organizing workshop for shipbreaking workers in Chattogram, Bangladesh,
equipping unions to target the industry's most influential employers for the first time.
The training, held from 18 to 20 June, brought together organizers from two affiliated federations: the Bangladesh Metal, Chemical, Garments & Tailors Workers Federation (BMCGTWF) and the Bangladesh Metalworkers’ Federation (BMF). Both federations represent
workers in the ship recycling yards of Sitakunda, near Chattogram, which handles around one third of the world’s end-of-life ships.
Women from downstream industry join for the first time
For the first time, women workers from the downstream recycling industry attended the workshop. This part of the sector, which processes scrap steel and components into new products, is predominantly female and currently unorganized. Participants developed
a concrete plan to begin organizing this workforce.
A participant speaks during the IndustriALL organizing workshop for the Bangladesh ship recycling sector, Chattogram, 18 June 2026a
Mapping power in the industry
Organizers spent the three days mapping the industry’s ownership structures, tracing links between industrial conglomerates, shipyards and rerolling mills. The analysis revealed a significant challenge: while union density reaches around 80 per cent in some
yards, those yards tend to be smaller and less commercially significant. Overall density across the sector remains low, limiting the unions’ ability to drive meaningful change in conditions.
Participants work together on a mapping exercise during the IndustriALL organizing workshop for the Bangladesh ship recycling sector, Chattogram, 18 June 2026
The unions used this mapping to identify the most strategically important employers and developed targeted organizing campaign plans around issues raised by workers themselves.
On the final morning of the training, participants put their new skills into practice, speaking directly with workers returning from night shift and visiting workers in their homes.
Wages and safety at the centre
Two issues emerged as the clearest mobilizing points. The industry’s tripartite Wage Board agreed a new minimum wage of BDT 22,000 (US$180) per month at a meeting on 17 June 2026, though the agreement has not yet been officially gazetted. Many yard owners are
already failing to pay the previous minimum of BDT 16,000 (US$130). Separately, many yards continue to fall short of safety requirements under the Hong Kong Convention, placing workers at serious risk.
IndustriALL campaigns and organizing director Walton Pantland said:
“We’ve been organized in the shipyards for many years, but we have never had the density or the influence to significantly shift the employers. We’re going to change that by taking a more strategic approach: targeting the most influential employers. We want
safe working environments, decent work and a living wage for all our members.”
______________________________
Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street, Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct line: 010 219-1348