Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 6 June 2022
Norman Mampane
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#2022YearofWorkersParliament #YouthMonth #InternalDemocracy #WorkerControl #EndChildLabour #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness |
Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin
‘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
Monday, 6 June 2022
‘Deepen
the Back to Basics Campaign, Consolidate the Struggle for the NDR and Advance the Struggle for Socialism’
All workers urged to take Covid19 vaccine jabs!
Organize at every workplace and demand Personal Protective Equipment Now!
Defend Jobs Now!
Join COSATU NOW!
Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU Gauteng applauds the unity of Sibanye Stillwater mineworkers
- NEHAWU North West calls for an urgent intervention by the provincial government on the deteriorating Golden Leopards Resort
- South Africa
Ø COSATU Limpopo Statement on the outcomes of the 10th ANC Provincial Conference
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Attacks on education increased worldwide during pandemic
Ø Schiphol prioritises workers in tackling crisis and other airports should do the same
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
COSATU Gauteng applauds the unity of Sibanye Stillwater mineworkers
Louisa Modikwe, COSATU Gauteng Provincial Secretary, 6 June 2022
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Gauteng applauds the mineworkers at Sibanye Stillwater for the unity they displayed during the 3-month long strike until the very end.
The resilience illustrated by workers affiliated to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) is highly commendable.
The workers firmly defended their demands and collective bargaining, unwavering to various pressures that existed throughout their struggle.
This serves as a strong message to all employers in our province that workers in Gauteng are prepared to fight for better wages and will remain undeterred.
The unity of NUM and AMCU is an actualisation of the 14th Provincial Congress Resolution which reaffirmed solidarity of workers as key to fighting exploitation by employers and re-asserting the strength of trade unions in Gauteng.
As Karl Marx has said: “Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains”. We therefore call on all our affiliates in the province to recommit to this teaching by collaborating and working together with other unions in the sectors they are organising.
COSATU in Gauteng will continue to stand alongside all workers in a quest for better wages and better working conditions regardless of industry, government department or business.
Issued by COSATU Gauteng
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NEHAWU North West calls for an urgent intervention by the provincial government on the deteriorating Golden Leopards Resort
Ntombizodwa Moepeng, NEHAWU North West Provincial Secretary, June 03, 2022
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] in the North West Province calls for an urgent intervention of the provincial government at the Golden Leopards Resort.
As NEHAWU in the province, we are deeply concerned about the terrible financial state of Golden Leopards Resort [GLR]. Our concern is due to another delay in paying workers their salaries. These delays in paying salaries of workers are signals of a troubled institution that needs urgent attention by the North West Provincial Government before the collapse of a public owned resort.
The self-serving agenda of private accumulation by those entrusted to the public owned resort is the fundamental reason behind the deteriorating financial state of GLR and thus we make a clarion call on the MEC of Economic Development and Tourism to urgently and effectively intervene before the public losses yet another assert.
Amongst issues that need urgent intervention at the institution are the following:
• None payment of salaries in time, as per employment contracts.
• Lack of visionary management to run the Resort.
• Lack of marketing strategy to popularise the institution to attract clients and the community; of the country in general and NWP community in particular;
• Lack of tools of trade for employees to do their work diligently as expected;
• The institution is in a state of collapse as a result of lack of management skills.
• No board of trustees to ensure the Resort runs effectively; and
• Five (5) years without salary increment for workers despite profitable production.
The union calls on the MEC of Economic Development and Tourism to pay attention to all these issues and requests an urgent meeting to address them. As NEHAWU, we must put it on record that failure by the MEC to convene an urgent meeting will see us resorting to a march to the provincial government as these are issues need urgent attention.
END
Issued by NEHAWU North West Secretariat Office:
For more information, please contact: Ntombizodwa Moepeng (NEHAWU North West Provincial Secretary) at 018 381 4585 or 063 685 1911 or email: Ntomb...@nehawu.org.za.
South Africa
COSATU Limpopo Statement on the outcomes of the 10th ANC Provincial Conference
Gerald Mkhomazi Twala, COSATU Limpopo Provincial Secretary, 06 June 2022
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Limpopo take this opportunity to congratulate the African National Congress for a successful 10th Provincial Conference held on the 3rd – 5th June 2022 at The Ranch Hotel and Resort, outside Polokwane.
The 10th ANC Limpopo Provincial Conference which was attended by more than one thousand branch delegates, invited guests and organizations was extraordinary peaceful given the nature of such elective gatherings of our movement. The federation wishes to applaud the outgoing ANC PEC for delivering a smooth, seamless and incident free Provincial Conference.
Concomitantly, COSATU congratulate the newly elected ANC PEC collective led by the Provincial Chairperson, comrade Chupu Stanley Mathabatha.
It is our firm view that the elected leadership will move with speed to strengthen the alliance in the province, rebuild and unite the civic movement (SANCO) and the Progressive Youth Alliance components.
The federation commits to work together with the newly elected ANC PEC collective to develop an alliance led programme to renew and unite our movement, to reconnect with the masses of our people within the context our common commitment to the objectives of our national democratic revolution.
Issued by COSATU Limpopo
International-Solidarity
Attacks on education increased worldwide during pandemic
achieving sustainable development goal 4, 2 June 2022
Education International is deeply saddened after the release of the latest report published by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) indicating that over 9,000 students, teachers, and academics were harmed, injured, or killed in attacks on education during armed conflict over the past two years. It reiterates that schools must be safe spaces all over the world.
The 265-page report published on June 1st also mentions that more than 5,000 separate attacks on education facilities, students and educators, or incidents of military use, took place in 2020 and 2021, a significant increase over the previous two years. Researchers for Education under Attack 2022 indeed found that the number of attacks on education and military use of schools increased from 2019 to 2020 by one-third, and continued at this heightened rate in 2021, even as schools and universities around the world closed for prolonged periods during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stop using schools and universities for military purposes
“It is crucial for governments and armed groups to end attacks on education, and stop using schools and universities for military purposes,” said Diya Nijhowne, GCPEA executive director. “Governments should investigate attacks and prosecute those responsible for abuses. In post-COVID-19 ‘back to school’ campaigns, they need to fully integrate students affected by attacks, expanding alternative education programs developed during the pandemic as necessary.”
Attacks on education involve armed forces and non-state armed groups bombing and burning schools and universities, and killing, injuring, raping, abducting, arbitrarily arresting, and recruiting students and educators at or near educational institutions, during armed conflict. In addition to the deaths and injuries caused by these attacks, destroyed and occupied schools upend learning, sometimes permanently, and have long-term social and economic consequences.
The COVID-19 pandemic did not slow attacks on education
The COVID-19 pandemic did not slow attacks on education. In fact, some violations became more prominent in 2020 and 2021. Armed forces and non-state armed groups took advantage of vacant schools to use them for military purposes, including in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, and Syria. Elsewhere, the police responded with excessive force to students’ and educators’ protests over policies related to the closure or re-opening of schools and universities during the pandemic, including using water cannons and teargas. In other countries, such as Colombia and Palestine, after lockdown measures were lifted, schools that had sustained damage during attacks experienced delayed re-openings, or reopened with damaged facilities.
Seventh anniversary of the Safe Schools Declaration
This report was released on the seventh anniversary of the Safe Schools Declaration, a political commitment to protect education in armed conflict, endorsed by 114 countries. By joining the Declaration, countries commit to taking concrete steps to safeguard education, including by using the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict. Since the Declaration was opened for endorsement in 2015, governments and their partners have made tangible improvements in law and practice to protect education from attack. Over one-third of the countries profiled in the report are not signatories.
Education International’s Resolution on “Attacks on Schools in Africa”
The global education union community has been committed for many years to eradicate violence in educational settings, at all levels, around the world.
During the 2019 Education International’s World Congress, delegates adopted a resolution on attacks in Africa, noting that persistent terrorist attacks in Africa, notably in the Horn of Africa, including Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan, and particularly in the Sahelo-Saharan region of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, are constantly growing, expanding to neighbouring countries such as Benin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and raising serious concerns. They also deplored that “schools have become specific targets of violent attacks whereby students and their educators are killed, thus leading to the closure of hundreds of schools and an increase in the number of school dropouts”.
They further warned that, “without access to education, a generation of children living in conflict areas will grow up without the skills needed to contribute to the development of their countries and economies, thereby exacerbating the already desperate situation of millions of children and their families in the region, as well as preventing them from accessing decent employment when they reach adult age”.
The resolution therefore reasserts, among other, that:
- Education is a basic human right and a public good. All children have a right to free, inclusive and equitable quality public education regardless of where they live. However, many children in Africa do not have access to education because of attacks on education;
- A child’s right to education cannot be safeguarded or protected in conflict zones without education itself being protected; and
- Schools should be safe sanctuaries providing a safe space where children can be protected from threats and crises.
Education International’s Declaration on “Schools as Safe Sanctuaries”
In 2009, Education International adopted a Declaration on “Schools as Safe Sanctuaries”, voicing “the collective demand by teachers and their unions worldwide that the international community take action to ensure that education is both protected in conflicts and enabled to realise its potential as a force for peace in the world”.
Therefore, in this document, Education International urges the international community to reverse the alarming growth in recent years in the number of violence political and military attacks worldwide against students, teachers, education unionists and education officials, and against education institutions.
It acknowledges that “it is essential that school systems and individual schools are run in a way that promote tolerance, understanding, respect of diverse cultures and religions, and conflict resolution in line with the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. This would enable them to become zones of peace, actively contributing to the easing of tension, and encourage recognition and respect of places of learning as safe sanctuaries that should not be targeted.”
Education International also calls on the international community, governments and human rights organisations to:
- Reaffirm the commitment to the principle of the right to education in safety
- Take practical measures to ensure protection
- End impunity for attacks on students, teachers, academics, all other education personnel and education facilities
- Strengthen monitoring of attacks and efforts to end impunity
- Prioritise action and share expertise on resilience and recovery
- Make education an agent for peace
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Schiphol prioritises workers in tackling crisis and other airports should do the same
03 Jun 2022
Dutch union federations have struck a deal with Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, to boost pay in this frenetic post-Covid-19 summer, and improve conditions in the long term.
The agreement is a piece of history because it extends beyond those who work directly for the airport, to include people employed by subcontractors. It ends a long battle by unions to get airport managers to accept responsibility for the terms and levels of pay offered through outsourcing.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) warmly welcomes the hard-fought deal between the Dutch union federations FNV (Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging) and CNV (Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond), and Schiphol’s operators. A series of measures puts the welfare and well-being of workers ahead of cost-cutting. It is seen by both sides as an important step in combatting the staff shortages which have resulted in chaos at airports across Europe, as passengers flock back to air transport after the pandemic.
“Let’s make no bones about this,” said Stephen Cotton, the ITF’s General Secretary. “The current craziness is a direct result of cutting thousands of skilled aviation workers’ jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic, without any sort of planning for recovery. We have lost over two million workers from the industry. Now that passengers are returning to the air, the remaining workers are doing the jobs of two or three people.
“Poor decisions by
airports, airlines and governments have seen travellers facing delays, last-minute cancellations and protracted waits to retrieve their luggage. This is something unions around the world warned would happen.”
Winning back airport workers
Now Schiphol hopes to retain and win back workers by imposing decent standards of pay and conditions on its subcontractors. The deal applies to all personnel working for companies at Schiphol through a tender agreement. This includes security personnel, bus drivers, cleaning staff, and passenger management services (such as check-in and baggage handling).
Workers will receive a bonus of €5.25 an hour during high season in 2022. (1 June — 5 September) plus a retrospective bonus covering the Dutch May holiday (23 April — 9 May). From September, they will also receive a bonus of €1.40 an hour until September next year.
The agreement will also see airport workers’ jobs being upgraded to a decent standard in the long term. Schiphol has agreed:
· Travel to work by public transport will be reimbursed, or free parking will be provided.
· That workers are guaranteed 10 continuous days of annual leave during the summer holidays.
· To creating a ‘social standard’ — working together with FNV — for working at the airport.
· That interns may not replace workers.
· To the introduction of equipment pooling in ground handling and a ‘License to Operate’ together with ground handlers, airlines and the FNV. It will also look towards reducing the number of ground-handler companies active at the airport.
· To investigate workload and passenger aggression on a regular basis.
· To grant unions access to workers and to create a new forum for social dialogue to give workers a stronger voice in the airport’s operation.
On health and safety, and social dialogue, unions used Toronto Pearson airport in Canada as an example of best practice, building on work by ITF affiliated unions there.
“I congratulate the FNV and CNV on achieving this landmark agreement,” said Cotton. “It is absolutely a template for other airports looking for ways out of the post-pandemic chaos we’re all experiencing. These workers are at the heart of aviation. Without them things simply don’t happen. Schiphol’s management has recognised the importance of decent work standards in getting operations to run smoothly. It’s time for other airports to step up and do the same.”
In the deal, Schiphol has committed to 11 basic principles:
1. Health and safety are top priority.
2. Working conditions and renumeration need to be adjusted to allow for the intensity of working at an airport.
3. Workers should not have to pay to get to work or park.
4. Permanent contracts are the norm. Temp work is only meant for covering peak periods and staff illness.
5. Compliance to collective labour agreements and labour law will be investigated and enforced by Schiphol.
6. Basic worker facilities such as break rooms and free coffee, tea and water will be provided.
7. Personal protective equipment (PPE) and working materials will be provided free of charge at all times.
8. Interns are meant to be learning on the job – they are not low-cost workers.
9. Tenders (outsourcing) may not result in a decline of working conditions.
10. Schiphol takes responsibility for working conditions and ensure that subcontractors comply.
11. Schiphol will start hotline/information point where workers can notify the airport about shortcomings or safety issues.
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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