Taking COSATU Today Forward, 1 April 2021
Norman Mampane
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This Weekend: #ArriveAlive #TravelSafely #WearMask #SocialDistancing #Screen #Test #Vaccinate #Back2Basics |
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
Thursday, 1 April 2021
‘Deepen
the Back to Basics Campaign, Consolidate the Struggle
for the NDR and Advance the Struggle for Socialism’
All workers urged to Organize at every workplace and demand Personal Protective Equipment Now!
Defend Jobs Now!
Join COSATU NOW!
Contents
o Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- NUM is deeply concerned about fatalities and injuries that are happening at Northam Platinum Mine
o South Africa
- SADTU Post NEC Statement
- NEHAWU Statement of the 7th Plenary Session of its 11th National Executive Committee
o International-Workers’ Solidarity!
Ø Future is public transport
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
NUM is deeply concerned about fatalities and injuries that are happening at Northam Platinum Mine
Geoff Moatshe, NUM Rustenburg Regional Secretary, 31 March 2021
The National Union of Mineworkers is deeply shocked and disturbed by the increasing number of fatalities and injuries that are happening at Northam Platinum Mine. The NUM is also disturbed by mine management's deliberate decision not to report these fatalities and injuries that are happening in their operations.
On 06 March 2021 there was a fatality at Northam Platinum Mine arising from a locomotive accident, again on 27 March 2021 there was another fatality arising from a fall of ground.
There is another worker who is critically injured due to fall of ground and is still admitted at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg. The mine management is keeping all these fatalities and injuries secret.
The fatalities and injuries that are happening at Northam Platinum are a result of this company pricing the loss of human life into their business model. They do not care about the mineworker's lives. They only care about profits.
It is unacceptable that mineworkers are denied their basic human right to work in an environment that guarantees their safety and that instead they are expected to go to work to die. We are selling our labour for the survival of our families, not our limbs, and lives.
The NUM strongly believes that drastic action is needed to compel the mining industry to comply with safety standards and procedures. The NUM anticipates that in an effort to do public relations in the wake of its failures, the mining industry would continue with its lip service and propaganda and argue that it is doing more and would continue to do more whilst lamenting on loss of production due to mine closures as a result of fatalities.
As the NUM, we urge the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) which is the regulator to play its role in ensuring that mines are safe and put the safety of the mineworkers as a priority
The union demands an immediate thorough investigation by the DMRE to establish the cause of this incident. We call upon employers to put the lives of mineworkers first so that we can be able to achieve zero harm and zero death in the mining industry.
The fact that there is no improvement in fatal accidents in the mining sector can only be interpreted as a sign of a lack of commitment towards zero harm and zero death by the mining sector.
The NUM sends condolences to the families, friends and fellow workers of the deceased mineworkers.
May their souls rest in peace.
South Africa
Mugwena Maluleke, SADTU General Secretary, 31 March 2021
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) – the highest decision-making body between congresses, convened a two-day ordinary virtual meeting from 29 to 30 March 2021.
The meeting was the first since schools officially opened for the 2021 academic year. Some of the issues the NEC deliberated on included organisational, labour, political, educational as well as socio economic matters.
Public service wage negotiations
The NEC meeting took place at the same time as the start of 2021/2022 public sector wage negotiations at the Public Service Co-Ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). These negotiations take place against the backdrop of the non-implementation of the last leg of Resolution 1 of 2018, which was to give public servants salary increments for 2020. SADTU and public service unions aligned to COSATU, namely DENOSA and POPCRU have applied at the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal against the Labour Appeal Court ruling that the Collective Agreement was unconstitutional and unlawful. The Unions are still waiting for the Constitutional Court to give the date for the hearing.
On the current negotiations (2021/22) the NEC has resolved that SADTU would continue to exhaust all available avenues. Should the employer frustrate the current negotiations by insisting on a wage freeze, the Union shall have no option but to ballot members for a strike.
The Union is against austerity measures because such measures destroy the possibility of addressing the inequality and put brakes on economic recovery. The Union will not tolerate the destruction of the collective bargaining right.
The NEC condemned government’s threat to freeze public servants wages. If the freeze was to be implemented, public servants like other education workers would not afford the basic needs, let alone keep up with the rising costs of living that have been drastically increased by the pandemic.
If the government was aiming for tighter controls, where does this leave the recruitment of future teachers and education workers into the public sector and how will the current teachers be retained if they could simply go to the private sector for better wages?
Freezing of salaries will in no way contribute to economic development, for it is an established fact that where don’t have, lesser buying power, with little circulation of money, no economy will grow. The freezing of salaries has demoralised workers and is working against any dream of achieving an effective and efficient developmental state. Public Servants are heavily hungry and no NORMAL employer can expect them to excel at work.
Education matters
The NEC resolved to establish subject committees to serve as a reference group to assist with the curriculum review and curriculum trimming processes in light of the three-year a curriculum recovery plan that was developed by the Department of Basic Education to manage the learning losses incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The pandemic highlighted the inadequacies of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) that proved to be too rigid and content heavy.
The subject committees will serve as a strong vehicle for subject teachers who are SADTU members to contribute to the continuous process of curriculum policy development and review; to provide a platform for debate, discuss, disseminate and analyse the state of subjects and guide the union’s inputs on curriculum issues and identify challenges in specific subjects and thus to present recommendations to improve curriculum interpretation and implementation.
“I AM A SCHOOL FAN” Campaign
The NEC raised, as one of the major points, the safety and dignity of education workers and learners within the schooling environment. The NEC understood that the violence at schools against education workers and amongst learners could only defer our trajectory towards improved education outcomes.
The NEC, therefore, decided to intensify SADTU’s campaign – “I am a School Fan” to highlight the plight of education workers and to promote community involvement in education.
Schools sports
The NEC lamented the role of sporting federations in school sports and insisted that this was not advancing the sport. Instead, federations hinder mass participation and involvement of the majority of schools more especially those in the rural and township areas. There is a continuous disjuncture between how the Department of Sports and federations continue to negate and ignore the Department of Basic Education which is meant to be in charge of schools and children.
Disparities and lack of uniformity continue to plague schools sports and schools with capacity and means allow federations to operate within their environment leaving behind less privileged schools who do not have the means and capacity.
The NEC resolved to convene a meeting with the Department of Basic Education to establish the best way forward for the participation of less-resourced schools in sport.
The NEC noted the Directions that have been issued by the Department of Basic Education regarding the resumption of sports in schools. The NEC resolved that it will ensure that Covid-19 safety regulations were observed on the ground to ensure the safety of learners, teachers and officials during sporting events.
The struggle against Gender-Based Violence, sexual harassment and the Gender Pay Gap
The Union will continue campaigning against Gender-Based Violence at the workplace. We call on our government to expedite the process of rectifying the ILO Convention C 190 which is one of several attempts to end violence and harassment in the world of work.
Employment of cleaners, screeners and education assistants
As contracts for cleaners, screeners and education assistants who were employed in the midst of Covid-19 come to an end on 31 March, the NEC called for this programme to be a permanent feature.
The NEC noted that the Covid-19 was still prevalent and the assistance provided by these workers was still needed in schools. Covid-19 protocols still remained in place; they require that whoever enters school premises should be screened, premises should remain clean at all times and teachers need to be assisted with administrative and paperwork.
This has been SADTU’s call even before the COVID-19 pandemic because we understood that having education assistants and additional capacity to assist with other non-core functions that are critical within the schooling environment is important.
Covid -19 and the Easter weekend
Noting the opening of the 2021 academic year under the cloud of Covid-19, the NEC commended teachers, education support personnel and learners for building the required resilience and making schools and other training institutions a formidable barrier against the transmission of the virus.
As the country was about to take the Easter long-weekend break, the NEC called on all South Africans not to drop their guard in observing Covid-19 regulations. The Easter period attracts large gathering as religious organisations hold Easter services while others visit families across provinces. The NEC urged churches to understand that restricting gatherings was not intended to undermine religion but rather to save lives.
No to vaccine imperialism!
The NEC raised serious concerns about the slow pace of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout programme and blamed the inherent weaknesses of a capitalist system and vaccine imperialism for this. Multinational pharmaceutical corporations from the United State and Western Europe dominates the research and development of Covid-19 vaccines. Some of these countries use their imperialist financial muscles to pursue Covid -19 vaccine nationalism, including through hoarding, making the vaccines inaccessible and unaffordable to many global South countries.
The NEC also lambasted multinational companies for using pharmaceutical patents to undermine access to vaccines. More than 250 research and education organisations, including global teacher union federation, Education International (EI) which SADTU is affiliated to, have called on the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive any intellectual property rights for vaccines and treatments related to Covid-19 and urgent action to address copyright barriers preventing access to knowledge.
The NEC reiterated the Union’s call and campaign for the Copyright Amendment Bill to be made into law, the NEC reiterated this call. If the Bill is passed, it will not only assist in the development of the country’s scientific capacity as we battle the pandemic but will significantly assist in ensuring access to education material for all as we explore innovations like blended learning in response to the pandemic.
Researchers contend that in some countries with flexible copyright systems, residents were able to access and use essential materials in remote educational, learning and research activities and use the collections of libraries and other institutions, and contribute to research on treatments. Access to this information could be key to developing Covid-19 treatments.
SADTU is part of the People’s Vaccine Campaign to put pressure on the World Trade Organisation to transform and treat all member states as equals and review TRIPS and WIPO regulations.
The NEC resolved to join progressive organisations including COSATU and the SACP in calling for the lifting of patents on Covid-19 vaccines to allow Global South countries that can develop the productive capacity to manufacture the vaccines themselves. Further, the Union will work with like-minded organisations across civil society to develop a programme to intensify the call for the finalisation of the parliamentary processes around the Copyright Amendment Bill.
The National Democratic Revolution and local government elections
The NEC welcomed the statement of the NEC of the ANC; it presented the NEC with another opportunity to self-correct and deal with all the sins of incumbency. The NEC remained skeptical though because statements, on their own, are not enough to renew the ANC as a vehicle to advance the cause of the people of South Africa for social justice. We need to move from statement to action and apply all rules consistently
The NEC noted that SADTU has a standing congress resolution that affirms the ANC but with clear expectations from the ruling party.
The NEC raised concern that the recent undermining of collective bargaining might destroy all the gains the public servants secured under and ANC-led government. These include among others, the equalisation of salaries and conditions of work of all teachers across racial, gender and geographical line and a pro-poor budget with more resources directed to the children of the poor.
The NEC will attend the Special CEC of COSATU to urge the federation to play a key role towards a radical reconfiguration of the alliance as per the resolution of the last Congress. This could open space on how we will participate in electoral politics beyond the 2021 Local Government elections.
The NEC urged the ANC to remove this unnecessary hurdle created by the government’s non-implementation of the last leg of Resolution 1 of 2018.
ISSUED BY: SADTU Secretariat
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NEHAWU Statement of the 7th Plenary Session of its 11th National Executive Committee
Zola Saphetha, NEHAWU General Secretary, March 31, 2021
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) convened its 7th plenary session of National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the 11th National Congress on the 30th – 31st March 2021.
The NEC considered the international context, national political and socio-economic situations including organisational assessment in particular matters affecting our members and the working class in general.
The meeting took place while the world is still battling with the coronavirus which has so far infected more than 128 million people across the world including the loss of life of more than 2.8 million people.
Apart from the loss of life, the pandemic has caused unprecedented damages to economies across the world coupled with an unacceptable number of job losses, and loss of personal income of millions of our people.
World unemployment has increased by 33 million to 220 million while working hours lost in 2020 is equivalent to 255 million jobs. In South Africa, the formal sector shed more than 594,000 jobs between December 2019 and December last year.
While the virus continues to claim lives on a daily basis the vaccination programmes of countries especially those in Africa continue to move at a snail pace because of scarcity of vaccines. This is due to the refusal by rich countries and Big Pharma to share vaccines including patent protections which play a huge role in access to vaccines which are critical in the fight to end COVID-19 transmissions. NEHAWU supports the WFTU campaign for “free health for all, for a safe and free vaccine for all against covid19; to build large, modern and public hospitals with all necessary human and technological equipment”.
The NEC meeting commended the effort by the South African government to build domestic vaccine productive capacity and also noted that the South African government, working with the Indian government and others as well as interest groups internationally, is placing a motion that calls for the waiver of the relevant clauses of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS.
The NEC reaffirmed the decision of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) that was held last year December directing the union not to deploy resources in campaigning for the African National Congress (ANC) in the forthcoming local government elections. Furthermore, the NEC clarified that this is not a boycott of the elections but the union shall not do the traditional form of support.
NEHAWU’s continuing supports for the ANC is a policy matter that only our national congress can review and affirm. The national union has decided to concentrate and to deploy its limited resources on servicing its members who are currently facing a frontal attack from the government which elected to renege on a binding collective bargaining agreement.
Moreover, we will need every cent at our disposal to fight the onslaught on our members and workers who have been subjected to a life of poverty by the non-implementation of clause 3.3 of PSCBC Resolution 1 of 2018.
The meeting also welcomed the ANC NEC meeting’s decision that all ANC members who are charged with corruption or serious crimes should step aside within 30 days, and if they fail, they will be suspended from the organisation.
We support this decision as part of our broader campaign against corruption and the plundering of state resources.
Corruption is counter-revolutionary and those that defend the state-capture corruption networks are counter-revolutionaries and mercenaries. It is therefore the duty of the entire democratic movement to defeat corruption wherever it rears its ugly head and those found to be involved in corruption must be punished regardless of positions they hold in both the movement, in government and in society.
We hope that this decision will be fully implemented in order to help to address the integrity crises currently faced by the ANC. However, we are highly disappointed by the ANC NEC silence on the onslaught to public sector workers who have not received a salary increase since the 1st April 2021.
More so because the ANC government has itself admitted that over R500 billion have been looted and wasted over the past decade, not least through the connections of its own deployees in the state and its organs, which the government is now putting exclusively on the shoulders of the coalface public servants.
The national union is looking forward to the centenary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and will actively participate in all the activities of the Centenary Programme, working with COSATU to support the activities and ensuring that our members and the working class in general experience a fitting tribute to our reliable vanguard party.
We reject the presentation of an austerity budget by Minister Tito Mboweni as that budget is a continuation of the onslaught on collective bargaining by our democratically elected government including the lack of decisiveness by the President of the country, Cyril Ramaphosa, in directing the Minister of Finance to pay the salary increases. Apart from refusing to pay salary increases for the next three years, Treasury supported by the President is also considering reversing more gains of workers including a moratorium on filling posts, the abolition of benefits and allowances like rural allowances and the revision of pay-progression rules and the Occupation-Specific Dispensations (OSD).
NEHAWU will intensify the fight for the implementation of Resolution 1 of 2018 including forcing government to accede to our demands for the next bargaining cycle at the PSCBC. This is a do or die battle for us as a loss will mean the destruction of collective bargaining and possibly the death of trade unions. As NEHAWU, we have filed leave to appeal application at the Constitutional Court on the 26th January 2021 and awaiting for the apex court to rule on the application.
Government must be ready for a mother of all fights as we fight to defend our members in particular and workers in general. Furthermore, we condemn the delaying tactics of the employer at the PSCBC during the negotiations for the next bargaining cycle. Instead of presenting a counter offer to our demands the government elected to turn the salary negotiations into a clarity seeking questions session thus delaying the process of negotiations. We want to make it crystal clear that we will not tolerate any silly attempts to derail the process as a tactic to avert acceding to the demands of workers. In this regard, the national executive committee directed all provinces to convene membership meetings in the public service to report back and receive a mandate on a way forward including preparing for a mass action.
As NEHAWU, we remain steadfast in our demands for the following:
- Single Term Agreement
- Across the board increment of CPI plus 3%
- Abolishment of Salary Level 1 to 3 and demand that Salary Level 4 must be the entry level. In the event that the abolishment is not doable parties must look at securing more benefits for members in Levels 1 to 3.
- Full time employment of all Community Health Workers and contract /fixed term workers who have been in the public service for more than 12 months.
- Expeditious review of GEMS resolution as per pervious agreement to ensure that the initial objectives of the resolution of providing affordable medical scheme for public servants which must also include the review of the governance structure of GEMS.
- Full implementation of the Housing Scheme that will allow workers to access affordable housing.
- A resolution that will see GEPF creating a portfolio and investment in the housing scheme to help public servants getting access to decent and affordable housing, instead of bailing out state entities. Further that there should be a change in the GEPF Act to direct the administration of the facility through GPAA.
- A bailout payment to public servants that will seek to provide a financial relief to respond to financial woes that members are subjected to as a result of none increment of salaries and economic contractions. The GEPF legislation must be reviewed in such a way that beneficiaries and members are not prejudiced when supposed to benefit.
- Long outstanding resolution dating back from 2012 that directly benefit members must form part of the current demands and must be implemented in 2021.
- We demand that we conclude a collective agreement that will regulate the conditions of service of employees as and when we are faced with a disasters as a country such as the pandemic.
The NEC rejected the programme of budget cuts by National Treasury in the Post Schooling Education and Training (PSET) sector. In 2020, Treasury allocated about R116.9 billion towards the funding of the entire PSET sector. However, almost R10 billions of this amount was diverted to finance the sector’s response to the Coronavirus. Yet from our recent site-visits in TVET and CET institutions, in the overall our teams have found no tangible evidence of such spending on non-pharmaceutical prevention measures. In this regard, we condemn any cuts in the budget of the PSET sector as they seek to minimise access to post schooling institutions especially for students from working class background. We support the struggle by students for more funding and the writing off of student’s debts. Furthermore, we call on government to immediately address the current shortfalls, abolish the student-debt and ensure that NSFAS funding, institutional subsidies and the enrolment plans are aligned with the growth rate of the post-schooling student population.
The National Office Bearers (NOB’s) undertook a fact-finding mission to assess the state of readiness of post schooling institutions for the reopening for the 2021 academic calendar. The results of the visits to the colleges reveal that majority of the colleges and universities are not ready to safely welcome back workers and students.
Most institutions do not have Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), not enough space for social distancing, proper sanitation and functioning health and safety committee.
The national union will release a full report on its mission report which will also be shared with the Minister of Higher Education and Training.
The NEC meeting condemned the recent attacks in Mozambique especially the raid by an Islamic State (ISIS)-linked armed group known as Al-Shabab in the town of Palma in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province which resulted in the killing and wounding an unknown number of civilians and causing thousands to flee. The senseless killings of innocent is totally unacceptable and we call on the South African Development Community (SADC) and the people of the region to act decisively in taking steps to protect the people from the brutality currently taking place there.
The NEC noted the political, economic and social crisis in Zimbabwe which has a negative impact on the working class and poor Zimbabwean families including the struggles of the trade unions in the country. In this regard, the national union took a decision to provide support to the Zimbabwean trade union movement working with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
Furthermore, the NEC rejected the continued US aggression against Venezuela and their refusal to recognise the democratically elected government of President Nicholas Maduro. The illegal economic embargo on Cuba still remains in place while the communist island is busy with developing lifesaving vaccines that it plans to share with the world. As NEHAWU, we remain a union deeply committed to fighting against the blockade.
The NEC condemned dismissal of more than 300 nurses at the Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) following a go-slow in February by the Lesotho Department of Health and the NETCARE Healthcare Group.
The national union will continue to pay a sufficient attention in conflicts taking place in Southern Africa and also to step up its organisational work on Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, DRC, Cameroon, Sudan, Mozambique and other countries deems necessary.
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat
International-Solidarity
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By Mark Watts, Executive Director of C40 Cities and Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the ITF, 31 March 2021
Public transport systems around the world — and the workers who power them — have kept communities moving during the fight against COVID-19. These bus drivers, train operators, conductors, ticket sellers, mechanics and cleaners have made sure that other frontline workers have also been able to make it to work every day. Now we need governments to step up too, not just cancelling the budget deficits that amassed as passenger numbers collapsed during lockdowns, but taking the opportunity of changed work and travel patterns to invest in expanded and zero-emission public transport services that can be the cornerstone of a green and just recovery from the pandemic.
As we begin to edge toward the end of this crisis, we still face a number of tremendous challenges, but also have some great opportunities to emerge as a stronger, more inclusive and cohesive society.
Central to realising that opportunity will be how societies invest in public transport. The pandemic has exacerbated already huge funding gaps for these services amid dire economic conditions. In Italy, transit operations are estimated to have lost $1.8billion (€1.5 billion) in fare revenues during 2020 [1] the Brazilian public transport sector registered an economic loss of $1.7 billion (R$9.5 billion)[2] in 2020; Vancouver’s transit authority said it was losing around $75 million every month.[3] New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Agency estimates a $6 billion deficit in 2021 and a cumulative deficit of close to $16 billion due to COVID-19 over a five-year period [4]. In response, many transit systems have reduced their services, reducing bus frequency, cutting night services, or reducing services to the most profitable routes.
To recover from COVID-19, governments must make ambitious commitments to invest in public transport infrastructure and operations now. While we applaud actions some national governments have taken to help mass transit systems survive the immediate COVID-19 crisis, stable, direct, and long-term funding is needed to ensure cities can protect transit services and workers and invest in expanded and zero-emission transport. A just transition will protect and create green jobs, and guarantee that expanded public transport provides access to employment opportunities for millions more. This is an opportunity to invest in our cities, for jobs, for workers, for city residents, and, critically, to futureproof our cities to the world’s next looming crisis: the climate emergency.
Today, workers, mayors, union leaders and city residents around the world are standing together to demand transformative investments in public transport to protect and create millions of decent, union jobs and ensure a green and just global recovery with public services at the core. It is a vital opportunity to promote gender equity in both jobs and services, and a visionary employment strategy for young people.
How governments invest in the post-pandemic recovery will determine whether we accelerate the transition to a greener, fairer economy or whether we lock-in pollution for decades. C40 research indicates between 40% and 80% of trips in cities need to be walking, cycling, or public transport by 2030 if global heating is to be constrained below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Put simply, you can’t have a sustainable city without mass transit.
If we are serious about tackling the climate emergency — and we need to be — then the recovery stimulus has got to be big, green and fast.
Safe, affordable and high-quality transit in cities is key not only to achieving clean air and emissions cuts, but to protecting the frontline workers who have risked their lives every day for the past year to protect us. The pandemic has disproportionately impacted the health of transport workers, and many members of ITF affiliates worldwide have died. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) in the United States alone has lost more than 140 members over the past year. Public transport has been a lifeline to our communities, and it’s time we treat it as such.
Public transportation is a social and economic justice issue. This threat to the viability of affordable and accessible public transport is happening just as the pandemic reveals how much we all depend on it. Mass transit is a vital service for those workers who need to travel to work during the pandemic, such as healthcare staff, care workers, teachers and those who keep food on shop shelves. It also means, in effect, that we are all users of public transport whether we are direct users of it or not. As we recover from the pandemic, it will be vital to ensure those without private cars can find and access work. It seems likely that those who can work from home after the pandemic will do so more often than before, which offers an opportunity to refocus transport services away from routes designed around the needs of city centre commuters towards the cross-neighborhood journeys that are used by a wider range of people .
We must also enable a just transition from informal to formal services with participation from workers and communities. 7.3 million workers are formally employed in public transport operations globally and, in many parts of the world, informal jobs may represent up to an additional 30–40% of the total number of transport jobs[5]. There are simply too many families and communities at stake to allow mass transit to fail.
New research released today by C40 Cities shows that investment in global public transport systems will not only safeguard existing jobs and cut emissions from urban transport by more than half by 2030, but create 4.6 million additional jobs by 2030 across 100 cities in the C40 network, and their supply chains, with multiplied economic impact as a result of greater public transport access. Protecting and championing public transport systems is both a powerful intervention for achieving a green and just recovery in cities and essential to any chance of sustainable urban living into the future.
To achieve a green and just recovery, we need public investments in new and improved metro, commuter rails with faster, more frequent services and improved formal and zero-emission bus services with a just transition for workers. Our cities deserve integrated ticketing and real time information systems and investments in electric public transportation. We must envision, invest and build toward a future where any person can easily, safely and affordably hop on a bus or a train to get to work, school, the hospital or the market.
Bold investments in public transport will empower workers and citizens around the world to not only survive, but to thrive and contribute to climate action. At a time of global mass unemployment and a climate emergency, the future is public transport.
[1] UITP Europe (13 May 2020). European CEOs and city representatives call for local public transport to be a key sector in the European recovery plan.
[2] https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2021/01/transporte-publico-circula-com-61-dos-passageiros-e-pode-sofrer-mudanca-estrutural-em-2021.shtml
[3] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/translink-seeking-emergeny-funding-coronavirus-pandemic-1.5531302
[4] Mass Transit (19 November 2020) New York MTA lays out dispiriting 2021 budget proposal with drastic cuts to service and staff levels
[5] ILO (2020). ILO Sectoral Brief on COVID-19 and Urban Passenger Transport Services
__________________________
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