Taking COSATU Today Forward, 6 May 2024
Norman Mampane
|
COSATU TODAY #Back2Basics #ElijahBarayiBrigades #VoteANC #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
6 May 2024
“Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism”
Organize at every workplace and demand Personal Protective Equipment Now!
Defend Jobs Now!
Join COSATU NOW!
Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- NEHAWU to host International Nurses Day Commemoration
- South Africa
- COSATU Free State refuses to attend the signing of the agreement between Eskom and Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality and will seek legal recourse
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- ITUC calls for "systemic shift" at UN Financing for Development Forum
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
NEHAWU to host International Nurses Day Commemoration
Lwazi Nkolonzi, NEHAWU National Spokesperson, May 06, 2024
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] as a union organising in the healthcare sector will join millions of nurses across the world in celebrating the International Nurses Day which is celebrated annually.
NEHAWU will host an International Nurses Day celebration on Friday, 10th May under the theme “NHI now to free nurses of the psychosocial traumas of the two tier healthcare system".
The aim of the celebration is to recognise and appreciate the critical role of nurses as the backbone of the healthcare system and the important role they play in promoting health and wellbeing of our people.
Equally, the celebration will focus on the conditions within which nurses’ work under as primary caregivers, the role of nurses in the roll-out of the National Health Insurance [NHI] at the critical point of medical care and the transformation of the nursing fraternity.
The event will be addressed by Speakers from the following organisations:
- NEHAWU President, Cde Mike Shingange
- Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla
- South African Nursing Council
- Gauteng Department of Health MEC, Nomantu Ralehoko
- Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council [PSCBC]
Details of the International Nurses Day Celebration:
Date: Friday May 10, 2024
Time: 10H00
Venue: Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital
Members of the media are encouraged to attend and to cover the International Nurses Day celebration. For more information contact: NEHAWU National Spokesperson, Lwazi Nkolonzi at 081 558 2335 or email lwa...@nehawu.org.za
END
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat.
COSATU Free State refuses to attend the signing of the agreement between Eskom and Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality and will seek legal recourse
Monyatso Mahlatsi, COSATU Free State Provincial Secretary, 06 May 2024
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the Free State is in possession of an invitation to attend and deliver a message of support at the Distribution Agency Agreement to be concluded between Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality (MAP) and Eskom on 07 May 2024.
This agreement will appoint Eskom as an electricity distribution agent for MAP. This process has been designed to also include the secondment of municipal workers who are South African Municipal Workers’ Union(SAMWU) members to Eskom for the duration of the contract.
Weeks before receiving the invitation, we had written through SAMWU to MAP to reignite the discussions about the process of bringing in Eskom as an electricity distribution agent in MAP. The issues of the conditions of service workers in line with Labour Relations Act section 197 remain unresolved.
We regret that we have been met with a lack of political and administrative will to address the conditions of service issues by Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality. For the past nine months we have initiated processes to host the Local Labour Forum to deal with these issues and the process has been addressed with intransigence from the municipality.
This process came about after COSATU filed a Labour Relations Act Section 77 notice for a Socio-Economic strike demanding a reliable supply of electricity and water in MAP. The municipality has always been absent when critical discussions had to take place to take the process forward.
The Federation is not opposed to the conclusion of the agreement but there are issues that need to be dealt with, especially the term of the agreement. The last draft at our disposal mentioned a 20-year term. There is no capacitating joint project that should last that long! The issues of workers also must be clarified as the electricity department being taken over is an ongoing concern.
COSATU Free State will not honour the invitation as doing so it would be legitimizing the process and compromising the interests of our members in the process. If it were an engagement process, we would gladly attend. However, we can’t attend a dubious ceremonial signing event of a contract we do not agree with.
We will therefore be seeking legal recourse in the best interests of our members in relation to this matter. Our members are also residents in MAP, we can’t be part of the law-breaking process that will unfold in MAP on 07/05/2024.
The struggle continues!
Issued by COSATU Free State
International-Solidarity
ITUC calls for "systemic shift" at UN Financing for Development Forum
2 May 2024
The ITUC demands substantial changes in global financial strategies to better meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), after the conclusion of the United Nations’ Financing for Development Forum (FfD Forum).
ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “There were several positive commitments at the conclusion of the FfD Forum that deserve cautious praise, but overall it’s clear that we need a systematic shift, as we set out in our demands before the Forum, to deliver improvements for working people.”
Key highlights from the FfD Forum outcomes include:
· Crucial references to decent work and the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions.
· A commitment to equal pay for equal work and to strengthen social protection systems, which are vital for reducing inequalities.
· The acknowledgment of the essential alignment between policy and financial commitments towards sustainable development.
· A commitment to integrate gender-sensitive strategies into poverty eradication and the need to redistribute care work.
· The reference to progressive taxation and enhancing tax cooperation at the UN level.
· The call for improved mechanisms to address sovereign external debt distress, which must include the participation of private creditors and expand support to vulnerable countries.
· The support for reforming multilateral development banks. However, the ITUC is cautious about the emphasis on innovative financing, which has shown limited development impact.
____________________
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