Taking COSATU Today Forward, 25 June 2015
Norman Mampane
Taking COSATU Today Forward
Alliance Political Council underway!
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Mao
Our side of the story
Thursday 25 June 2015
‘Strengthen COSATU for total emancipation.....The Struggle continues’
Contents
Workers Parliament
Ø Join the ILO Campaign against #forcedlabour
Ø Aurora thieves must pay up
South Africa
Ø President Zuma to release the Marikana report
Ø FW de Klerk should be stripped off his Nobel Peace Award
Ø The right to life is sacrosanct
International
Ø Switzerland: teachers want to balance the salary scales
Ø Georgia's growing union movement
Workers’ Parliament!-COSATU Provincial Congresses underway!
Join the ILO Campaign against #forcedlabour
http://50forfreedom.org/images/logo_en.png
Over 21 million people are trapped in forced labour
They work in factories and mines, in homes and on the streets. They are all around us and in every country.
Now is our chance to change that. We’re launching a campaign to end modern slavery and we need your help.
Click the link to sign up an pledge your support for the campaign http://50forfreedom.org/
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Aurora thieves must pay up
Livhuwani Mammburu, Acting NUM National Spokesperson, 25 June 2015
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) welcomes the judgement by the North Gauteng High Court which ruled that directors of Aurora Empowerment Systems and their business associates must pay up.
As the NUM, we totally agree with Judge Bertelsmann who delivered this scathing judgement that Aurora directors, Khulubuse Zuma, Zondwa Mandela, Thulani Ngubane and their business associates Solly and Faizel Bhana, should be made to pay for all losses to the Pamodzi estate in their personal capacity.
The judgement today is the light at the end of the tunnel.
We have always believed as the NUM that Aurora directors were not credible. They were thieves who came to steal the assets of the company.
These were a group of thieves who stripped all the assets and destroyed the infrastructure.
We are happy about the judgement, but we are however worried that their lawyers have indicated that they are going to appeal the judgement and this is another delay. We have instructed our lawyers to meet the liquidators and chart the way forward to demand the payment for the workers as soon as possible.
The judgement today is a victory for these poor mineworkers.
Thousands of these workers are trapped in abject poverty, they have no food, have no running water and some of those workers are sick and others have passed on due to stress created by these heartless thieves.
South Africa
President Zuma to release the Marikana report
The Presidency, 25 June 2015
President Jacob Zuma will address the nation this evening, 25 June 2015, and also release the report of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry.
The President will address the nation through the public broadcaster, the SABC at 19h00.
On 26 August 2012, the President appointed a Commission of Inquiry to investigate matters of public, national and international concern arising out of the tragic incidents at the Lonmin Mine in Marikana, near Rustenburg, during 11 to 16 August 2012, when more than 44 people lost their lives and many others were injured.
The Commission was chaired by Retired Judge Ian Farlam, assisted by Advocates P D Hemraj SC and B R Tokota SC.
Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria
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FW de Klerk should be stripped off his Nobel Peace Award
Richard Mamabolo, POPCRU Media and Communications Officer, 25 June 2015
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) finds it disheartening that Former President De Klerk still believes in apartheid being a conducive policy to be continued against the peace loving people of Palestine.
When, for example, fighting patriarchy, one would not encourage those negatively affected (women) to discuss the issue among themselves, but to rather include men in the discussions for the purpose of men understanding the effects thereof from a female perspective, and in that regard, being part of finding solutions in effecting change that recognises women’s rights as equal partners.
In this regard, the oppressor must form part of the discourse with the oppressed if any progress is to be made.
By De Klerk claiming the sanctions against Israel would be counter-productive is equivalent to regretting the end of South African apartheid, and as an apartheid President himself, we would have thought he would take a different posture towards what is currently happening in Palestine.
Sanctions against South Africa played an instrumental role in forcing business to arrange negotiations between the Apartheid regime and the ANC-led alliance, and therefore would have perhaps shaped the country in a different manner had they not taken place. It would have meant the regime would have continued funding the terrorism and killings of black South Africans for longer.
In the midst of daily killings of the Palestinian people, our view is that De Klerk is not rehabilitated from his ‘glorious’ past, and should be stripped off his Nobel Peace award.
How shameful it is that the Democratic Alliance insists on honouring this man who still has firm beliefs in apartheid. Again, being that the DA emanates from the National Party resembles can only confirm it runs in the family.
Issued by POPCRU
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The right to life is sacrosanct
Siyabonga Mdodi, SACP Provincial Spokesperson, 24 June 2015
The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Eastern Cape has noted with grave concern the recent closure of public hospitals by the people who are in service delivery protests.
The closure of any public hospitals like it happened in Madwaleni Hospital and Siphethu Hospital or damage to any other public property is unacceptable.
There is no service delivery need that can justify closing of a public hospital and deny people the right to health and the right to life as other people are in a risk of losing lives under the circumstances. We condemn these acts as criminal, as even during the fight against inhumane apartheid regime we never embarked on such criminal activities.
We would like to caution the protesting communities, that any criminal act like closing of hospitals, schools, burning of public property, etc delegitimizes any genuine demands they may have.
We are calling for all leaders of the alliance formations in the area to get closer to the situation and work tirelessly with the affected people in getting a lasting solution to the challenges.
Issued by the SACP Eastern Cape
- See more at: http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?ID=4803#sthash.ruft2Yfv.dpuf
International
Switzerland: teachers want to balance the salary scales
Education International, 24 June 2015
Swiss educators say it’s time to reverse a 20-year trend of underpaying teachers, by raising salaries to the level of other sectors to ensure that the profession continues to be a popular career choice.
The salaries of teachers have not increased sufficiently in recent years, says Swiss teachers’ union Dachverband Lehrerinnen und Lehrer Schweiz (LCH) in a statement demanding that it is time to give the profession the respect it deserves.
The Swiss Federal Statistics Office (FSO) and other salary comparison studies report that real wages in education have increased far less than most other sectors since 1993.
According to the FSO, the average wage increase in real terms since 1993 in all sectors is about 11.5 percent. In the field of education and teaching, it is only 8.6 percent. By comparison, in the finance and insurance sectors, wages rose in real terms by almost 25 percent over the same timeframe.
The situation in secondary education is more concerning. In a majority of the cantons (a member state of Switzerland), the secondary school teachers earn less than real wages for teachers 20 years ago.
A secondary school teacher launching her career this summer in the canton of Aargau will earn 4.7 percent less than her colleague whose career began in 1993. In Zurich, a teacher will start her career earning 3.5 percent less, in Bern 3 percent less, and even less than 12 percent in Schaffhausen.
The wage policy is partly responsible for the teaching personnel’s shortage
A recent wage analysis in 2015 led by the LCH shows that the current insufficient salary policy has a destructive influence on the professional image of teachers. This negative image results in promising candidates often choose other pathways of study with better prospects.
Also the analysis found that too many young teachers leave the profession after only a few years. The FSO has indicated that in the first year of service 16 percent of newly qualified teachers walk away from the profession. After five years, nearly half (49 percent) have quit, and after ten years two-thirds (65 percent) of teachers have left temporarily or permanently.
To have enough qualified teachers by subject and level is the most important condition for success in education, as underlined in the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The survey interviewed over 100,000 teachers and school principals from 34 countries, and revealed that teachers, who feel valued, within countries perform better in the PISA study than those in countries who feel less valued.
As teacher wages are negotiated and decided upon in the cantons, the LCH, as the overarching body, has decided not to make a specific wage demand, but rather general demands which support its cantonal sections. Some of those demands include:
• Elimination of the underpayment: the LCH calls on the cantons and municipalities to raise the wages of the teaching personnel and the kindergarten teachers, so that they can compete with other forms of employment having similar skills and abilities requirements.
• Reliable wage perspective: teachers are often unaware of a career path offering the perspective of higher wages, as is common in other sectors; therefore, they need a legally-binding wage improvement system.
• Preservation of the teachers’ purchasing power.
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Georgia's growing union movement
IndustriALL, 25 Jun 2015
Georgia’s vibrant labour movement has grown in strength since 2012, and the country is a priority for IndustriALL Global when it comes trade union organizing.
The final workshop in a series of five within a union organizing project supported by IndustriALL Norwegian affiliate Energy Industri (EI) was held in Kobuleti on 31 May - 2 June 2015.
After a new labour code was adopted in 2006, the unions in Georgia experienced pressure from both employers and the state for several years. According to experts, the labour code is one of the worst examples of labor codes currently existing in the world. As a result of heavy business lobbying, Georgia has a tiny brochure of about 60 pages with no mention of trade unions instead of a detailed labour law corresponding to international norms and ILO standards.
The labour code has had serious consequences for workers in the country; labour inspections have been abolished, unions are under constant pressure, and as a consequence membership is declining.
It took more than seven years of union struggle to make the state authorities hear the voice of the unions, start a dialogue and make some changes to the labor legislation.
Tamaz Dolaberidze, president of IndustriALL affiliate Trade Union of Metallurgy, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers of Georgia (TUMMCIWG), said:
As the state no longer sides with the employer during collective labor disputes and is more open to social dialogue, we now have greater possibilities to develop our trade unions."
Trade union leaders and activists of the Trade Union of Metallurgy, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers of Georgia participated in the workshop and listened to Ole-Kristian Paulsen, international advisor at EI. He told participants about the activities of Norwegian unions and the subsequent recognition of the need of equal dialogue between the social partners which led to the country's prosperity.
On hearing about the efforts Georgian employers take to suppress unions at their enterprises, Ole-Kristian Paulsen said:
It is absolutely counterproductive, as eventually all the people will be organized in the union. If the employer would have taken these efforts to develop the production, the enterprise performance would have been much higher, and it would provide higher profits to business and higher wages to the employees".
Eduard Vokhmin, trade union trainer, facilitated the practical training. Participants practiced various organizing methods used in certain situations at their enterprises.
Announcements
Enabling COSATU Members to Tweet Effectively
NB: @cosatu2015 has been revamped and now it’s @COSATU2015_
Introduction to COSATU Official Twitter Accounts
Ø @COSATU2015_
Official tweets on current affairs, ideological disposition and for a Question & Answer platform
Ø @COSATU TODAY @_cosatu
Seconds- COSATU roving official tweets on events, quotable sound-bites on speeches/interviews, newsflash etc.
How to Register a COSATU Member Twitter Account
Ø Go Google and type twitter/sign up
Ø Versions of name/surname must be completed
Ø Choose a username/password and don’t forget them
Ø Update your profile; picture, bio
o Picture size should be 700k
o Bio-short narrative who you are
Ø Examples of Bio; Africa's largest Federation Official tweets, the home of the toiling classes across the world, with more than 2million membership...Amandla! Johannesburg, South Africa · http://www.cosatu.org.za
Ø Choose who to follow and type @COSATU2015_ and @COSATU TODAY @_cosatu
Ø And you’re skinning in the game through COSATU tweets
Communicating messages that matter is like artwork
Social Media generation is here and is unavoidable
‘Let’s skin in the game of COSATU Tweets’
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Ntai Norman Mampane (Acting National Spokesperson)
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 or Direct: +27 10 219-1348
Mobile: +27 72 416 3790
Twitter: @_cosatu / @COSATU2015_
Web: www.cosatu.org.za
‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’-The Communist Manifesto
