Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 18 June 2026 #CosatuNationalActionAgainstCostofLiving

[Norman Mampane]

 

COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #COSATU set to launch the Cost of Living Campaign tomorrow across nine provinces… How many people are you coming at the picket line/march? #NationaActionAgainstCostOfLiving #ILC2026 #ClassWar #Cosatu40 #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #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

18 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!

• COSATU Gauteng to lead cost of living march in Pretoria

• Media Alert: COSATU to Protest Escalating Cost of Living Crisis

• NEHAWU to convene its 13^th National Congress  

• South Africa
• COSATU to Protest Cost of Living Crisis Nationwide
• COSATU welcomes application for the Post Office to exit business rescue
• International-Workers’ Solidarity!
• International Labour Conference 2026: Historic new protections for platform workers and stronger commitments to gender equality at work
• UGT and CCOO strike at Iberdrola again over ‘Just Transition’ that leaves workers behind

Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics #ClassWar  

Media Alert: COSATU to Protest Escalating Cost of Living Crisis

Zanele Sabela, Cosatu Spokesperson, 18 June 2026

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is set to protest the escalating cost of living with demonstrations across all provinces this coming Friday, 19 June.

 

The cost of living in South Africa has reached crisis level with the price of basic goods rising faster than wages. Food, electricity, water, transport, health and education have become unaffordable.

 

At the same time, workers earn less in real terms than they did 10 years ago.

 

Household debt has escalated as workers borrow to put food on the table and keep the lights on.

The following demonstrations will be held across the country on 19 June:   Province		Venue/Assembly Point		Form of Action		Destination
Gauteng		Marabastad, Pretoria		March		National Treasury
Free State		Phuthaditjhaba		March/Picket		Maluti a Phofung Municipality
Western Cape		Hanover Street, Cape Town		March		Parliament and City of Cape Town
Northwest		Phokeng Luka Level Crossing, Rustenburg		March		Impala Platinum Offices
Mpumalanga		Matsamo Mall – Nkomazi Elukwatini SAAPI Forestry		Picket		Matsamo Mall and Sjonajona Plantation Elukwatini Sappi Forestry
Eastern Cape		Bisho War Memorial Park		March		Eastern Cape Legislature in Bisho
Limpopo		Limpopo Mall		Picket		Pick n Pay; Gems; Shoprite; Provincial Treasury and Department of Health
Northern Cape		ULCO Cement (NUM March), between Barkly West and approximately 80 km from Kimberley		March		ULCO Cementation Plant
KwaZulu-Natal		Durban Marine Building		Picket		Office of the Premier in Durban

Members of the media are invited to join and cover the demonstrations across the country.

For enquiries contact:
Zanele Sabela
Cosatu Spokesperson
079 287 5788/077 600 6639

_________________________

COSATU Gauteng to lead cost of living march in Pretoria

Louisah Moepeng Modikwe, COSATU Gauteng Provincial Secretary, 18 June 2026

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Gauteng will lead a Cost-of-Living March on Friday, 19 June 2026, in Tshwane, as part of the Federation's ongoing campaign to defend workers and poor communities from the escalating cost of living crisis.

The gathering point for the march will be the Marabastad Old Bus Depot in Tshwane at 09h00 and will proceed to Sophie De Bruyn Street, turn left into Madiba Street, then corner Sisulu and Madiba street, that is the destination, Reserve Bank where the memorandum will be submitted.

South Africans continue to face severe economic pressures, the rising price of food, electricity, transport, water, housing and other basic necessities are placing unbearable strain on working-class families. Millions of workers are struggling to make ends meet despite working hard every day.

The march seeks to highlight the urgent need for government and employers to take decisive action to address the high cost of living and protect the living standards of workers and the poor.

COSATU believes that no family should be forced to choose between putting food on the table, paying for transport to work, or keeping the lights on.

The march will be led by COSATU Provincial Chairperson, Amos Vusi Monyela, and the keynote address delivered by the Federation’s second Deputy President, Duncan Luvuno. COSATU will submit demands as per the needs of workers and call for urgent interventions to reduce the burden facing workers and communities.

COSATU calls on all affiliates, shop stewards, workers, community organisations and progressive forces to mobilise in large numbers and join the march.

Together we can send a strong message that workers and the poor cannot continue to carry the burden of economic hardship while inequality and unemployment remain at crisis levels.

Issued by the COSATU Gauteng

_______________________

NEHAWU to convene its 13^th 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 13^th 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 19^th 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

COSATU to Protest Cost of Living Crisis Nationwide

Zanele Sabela, COSATU Spokesperson, 18 June 2026

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), its Affiliates and aligned civil society organisations will hold demonstrations across the country to protest the escalating cost of living on Friday, 19 June.

The cost of living in South Africa has reached crisis level with the price of basic goods rising faster than wages.

Workers are taking home 47% less than they did 10 years ago in real terms, while in the last five years electricity and fuel combined have increased by 80%; water by 42%; food by 45%; and medical insurance by 58%.

Households are under extreme pressure to make ends meet and are borrowing, not to buy luxuries, but to close the gap between what they earn and the cost of basic goods.

Research shows 82% of South African households are in debt, and that in the last quarter of 2025, household debt accounted for 61.8% of disposable income.

Alongside the cost of living crisis, is the unemployment crisis with 43.7% of working age South Africans unable to secure a job.

Devastatingly, the face of poverty is still racialised 32 years into democracy, with 21% of Black South Africans living below the food poverty line of R855 and 75% living below the upper-bound poverty line of R2 846.

The cost of living crisis is not an accident.

It is a result of decisions that can be overturned by those in power. Government controls electricity and water tariffs as well as the fuel levy, while employers have the power to pay better wages that cater for the rising cost of living.

 

The Federation is demanding the following from them:

 

1. Enforcement of the National Minimum Wage and progression towards a living wage.

2. Employers must pay workers a living wage and increases to protect their meagre wages from inflation.

3. More labour inspectors

4. Expand the Presidential Employment Stimulus to provide a path to employment for millions of unemployed youths.

5. Increased social grants and for the Social Relief of Distress grant to be raised to the food poverty line and eventually transformed into a Universal Basic Income Grant.

6. Reduction in electricity and water prices

7. Lower fuel and food prices

8. End austerity and extend the social wage

9. Regulate healthcare prices, medical aid premium increases and implement the NHI

10. Reserve Bank must halt repo rate increases

 

COSATU calls on workers and members of society to join the various marches and pickets across the country to declare; workers and society can no longer bear the brunt of austerity policy choices by government and greedy profiteering by private companies.

Enough is enough!

Issued by COSATU

____________________________

COSATU welcomes application for the Post Office to exit business rescue

Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 18 June 2026

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the application submitted to the Gauteng High Court for the South African Post Office (SAPO) to exit business rescue. This is encouraging news following the recent appointment of the SAPO Board.

These respond positively to the call by the Federation and its affiliate, Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) and workers at SAPO for fresh, competent and committed leadership to be put in place and tasked to restore this once thriving public entity to its former glory and for SAPO to exit business rescue.

For far too long SAPO has been allowed to deteriorate to a state of near collapse.

The absence of dedicated and fit for purpose leadership has been at the centre of this painful decline in addition to SAPO’s failing to keep pace with structural shifts in the postal and communications sectors.

Matters have been made worse by the tenure of the Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) appointed through a court agreement with the creditors and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies in 2023 with little to show beyond retrenching thousands of SAPO employees and plunging their families into absolute poverty and despair, closing hundreds of branches and thus further shrinking its customer base and potential to recover.

Workers have been left for years without seeing their meagre wages being adjusted for inflation yet the BRPs made sure to pay themselves sumptuous fees.

The turnaround of other embattled state-owned enterprises from Eskom to Transnet, Metro Rail and South African Airways, proves that they can be fixed and once again contribute to stimulating economic growth and creating jobs with competent management, the removal of criminal and corrupt elements, filling frontline vacancies and recruiting critical skills, and investing in the company’s infrastructure and capacity.

The SAPO and Postbank Amendment Acts passed by the 6th Parliament provide a turnaround plan for both institutions, by allowing SAPO to enter the highly lucrative courier business and to become a one stop shop for citizens to access public services and enabling the Postbank to become a fully licensed state bank aimed at working class and rural residents all too often redlined by the private banking sector.

COSATU will be seeking urgent engagements with the Ministry and Parliament’s Portfolio Committee for Communications and Digital Technologies to provide comfort to workers that their jobs will be secured, monies paid and that a turnaround plan will be put in place.

It is critical that Treasury provide the necessary financial support to enable such a revival of SAPO to be implemented as a matter of the highest priority.

Issued by COSATU

International-Solidarity   

International Labour Conference 2026: Historic new protections for platform workers and stronger commitments to gender equality at work
17 June 2026

The adoption of the first international labour standard on decent work in the platform economy was one of several important advances for workers at the 114th International Labour Conference (ILC).
Governments, employers and workers also endorsed an ambitious agenda to advance gender equality at work and confirmed Palestine’s status as a non-member observer state.

Decent work in the platform economy

The ILC adopted Convention No. 193, Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention, 2026, the first international labour standard specifically addressing the rights and protections of digital platform workers.

The Convention applies to all platform workers, regardless of the type of work they perform, whether online or location-based, and confirms that fundamental principles and rights at work apply fully in the platform economy.

The Convention includes: The right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Recognition that workers’ rights and protections must depend on the reality of the work performed and remuneration received, rather than on contractual labels.
Important protections against discriminatory and unlawful suspension and deactivation, and the misclassification of employment status.
Transparency and accountability in algorithmic management, including rights to information, human review and remedies.
Timely and fair remuneration with cost recovery provisions and measures to extend social protection. For the first time ever in an ILO Convention, states are called upon to consider extending these protections to all platform workers.
Occupational safety and health protections, including the right for workers to remove themselves from dangerous work situations without retaliation, and protection against violence and harassment at work.
Safeguards for workers’ personal data and privacy.
Additional protections for migrant and refugee workers.
Guarantees of accessible, safe, fair and effective dispute resolution mechanisms and appropriate remedies.
Gender equality in the world of work

The Conference adopted the Outcome of the General Discussion Committee on the Transformative Agenda for Gender Equality at Work – setting out an ambitious package of policies and actions aimed at improving the lives of millions of workers.

The conclusions recognise that the ILO Conventions on maternity protection, workers with family responsibilities and violence and harassment at work are essential complements to the ILO fundamental Conventions and mutually reinforce the realisation of the fundamental principles and rights at work.

To tackle structural barriers to gender equality, as well as emerging challenges emerging from demographic, technological and environmental transitions, the tripartite conclusions call for:

The recognition of freedom of association and collective bargaining as fundamental tools to strengthen the representation of women workers, particularly domestic workers and workers in the informal economy.
Equal pay for work of equal value and wage policies, including living wages.
Gender-responsive occupational safety and health systems, including measures to prevent psychosocial and reproductive health risks, as well as violence and harassment at work.
Expanding social protection coverage by two percentage points annually backed by stronger public investment.
Comprehensive care policies and quality public services to support women’s access to, retention in and advancement within decent work.
Measures to tackle gender bias in algorithmic and artificial intelligence systems.
Gender-responsive just transition plans towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all.
Gender equality is featured as a core institutional priority of the ILO, which is now called open to develop a strategy to give effect to the conclusions and to regularly monitor progress.

Palestine’s status confirmed

Another significant outcome of this year’s Conference was the confirmation of Palestine as a non-member observer state. The decision was endorsed in a vote by a large majority.

Workers’ representatives welcomed the recognition as an important step in support of inclusive multilateralism and social justice.

“The Conference reaffirmed the central role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in promoting social justice and ensuring that technological and economic transformations deliver rights and protections for all workers. It is clear that social dialogue and tripartism are essential tools to address persistent inequalities faced by working people.” ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle

_____________________________

UGT and CCOO strike at Iberdrola again over ‘Just Transition’ that leaves workers behind
17 June, 2026

More than 9,000 Iberdrola workers across Spain are set to strike on 19 June, as collective bargaining talks that started in January 2025 remain deadlocked after sixteen months. IndustriALL affiliates UGT and CCOO say the energy company is refusing to protect workers' purchasing power despite posting record profits.

It is the second general strike at Iberdrola in just over a year. The first took place on 6 June 2025, when over 9,000 workers walked out in the company’s first ever strike.

Sixteen months, no progress
Negotiations on a new collective agreement began in January 2025. Sixteen months on, UGT and CCOO say talks are exactly where they started, with the company unwilling to move on wage increases, restoring purchasing power, or working conditions.

Since 2021, the unions say, Iberdrola staff in Spain have lost 19 per cent of their purchasing power as wages rose only 2.8 per cent against far higher inflation. The unions describe the company’s pay offer as “a disgrace” for a company that calls itself a global energy leader. ELA and CIG are calling for a strike in the regions where they have presence, supporting the national strike.

Record profits, frozen wages
Iberdrola reported net profit of €6.285 billion in 2025. Since the current collective agreement took effect in 2021, net profit has risen 12 per cent, accumulating €24.924 billion in total profit over that period. The company’s market capitalization has reached close to €135 billion. Iberdrola, which describes itself as Europe’s leading electricity company by market value, is set to distribute more than €4.5 billion to shareholders for 2025.

Over the same period, the company’s executive chairman, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, increased his own remuneration by 6.45 per cent, to €14.11 million.

The unions say Spain accounts for 23 per cent of Iberdrola’s global workforce but contributed 46 per cent of its net profit in 2025, while the company’s own publicity about average pay of more than €88,000 per worker bears little resemblance to what staff actually take home.

A pattern of disputes
The unions point to repeated rulings against Iberdrola at Spain’s National High Court (Audiencia Nacional) in the past two years, including over an illegal two-tier pay scale, unlawful use of electronic voting in union elections, and a failure to uprate pension risk benefits in line with inflation.

UGT and CCOO representatives also maintained a five-day, round-the-clock protest outside Iberdrola’s Bilbao headquarters ahead of the company’s general shareholders’ meeting earlier this year.

The strike falls during the week Iberdrola is marking its 125th anniversary, tracing its origins to the founding of Hidroeléctrica Ibérica in Bilbao in 1901.

Just Transition, but not for workers
Iberdrola has positioned itself globally as a leader in delivering what it calls a Just Transition to clean energy, pointing to its coal plant closures and renewables investment as evidence of putting workers at the centre of the shift. UGT and CCOO argue that commitment looks different from the inside, accusing the company of doing exactly what unions have warned against for years: record profits and dividends at the top, frozen purchasing power on the shop floor.

“We stand with our Spanish affiliates as they take strike action for the second time in a year. Sixteen months of stalling is not negotiation, it is a refusal to engage. A company breaking its own profit records every year can afford to protect its workers’ purchasing power. A transition, whether that is closing a coal plant or restructuring an industry, is only “just” if it protects the jobs, pay and conditions of the workers it affects,” said Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary.

______________________________

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

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

[Norman Mampane]

COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #COSATU set to launch the Cost of Living Campaign tomorrow across nine provinces…

How many people are you coming with at the picket line/march?