Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 10 February 2017
Norman Mampane
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’-Mao
Our side of the story
Friday 10 February 2017
‘Unity and Cohesion of COSATU to Advance the National Democratic Revolution’
COSATU Cares!
Contents
Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
Ø COSATU Free State marches to demand the restructuring of Government Employees Medical Aid Scheme (GEMS)
Ø NEHAWU National Day of Action against the Department of Social Development
South Africa
Ø COSATU statement on the SONA 2017
Ø The State of the Nation Address must pronounce on measures towards radical economic transformation
International-Workers’ Solidarity!
Ø Solidarity works! Sri Lankan workers vote for union
Workers’ Parliament!-Back to Basics…
COSATU Free State marches to demand the restructuring of Government Employees Medical Aid Scheme (GEMS)
Monyatso oa Mahlatsi, COSATU Free State Provincial Secretary, 10 February 2017
COSATU Free State leaders during their visits to the various workplaces have been inundated with the unhappiness of our members in the public service, with the service they are receiving from GEMS.
We have noted that continuously, on an annual basis, GEMS continues to impose high increase on the monthly premiums while at the same time the benefits are not improving. Some members exhaust their benefits as early as in April each year, whilst they continue to pay until the end of the year. Our members are now indebted with cash loans, whilst trying to settle the bills that have not been paid by GEMS.
We had very high hopes when GEMS was established thinking it would be yet another platform from where to build the tenets of the NHI;however it is becoming abundantly clear that the agenda of GEMS seems to be going the other way. We are not prepared to just 'roll-over' and hand over GEMS on a silver platter to the capitalist agenda of commodifying our health!
We find this quite ridiculous and unacceptable, and as COSATU Free State, we would be marching to GEMS on February 17, 2017 at 10H00 to the offices of DESTEA to hand in a memorandum of demands on for the transformation of GEMS.
Issued by COSATU Free State
- See more at: http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=12409#sthash.6yn32XHM.dpuf
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NEHAWU National Day of Action against the Department of Social Development
Khaya Xaba, NEHAWU Media Liaison Officer, 9 February 2017
The National Education Health & Allied Worker Union [NEHAWU] invites the media to cover its National Day of Action which will take place tomorrow, Friday February 10, 2017.
The marches will take place as follows:
Main march:
Tshwane
- President Mzwandile Makwayiba to address the march
- General Secretary Cde Bereng Soke to read the memorandum
Members to assemble as from 8am in Marabastad. The march will leave at 10am to the Department of Social Development via Struben, into Thabo Sehume (former Andries Street) straight to North Rand Social Development Regional Office where memorandums will be handed over to Director Generals of both departments, Social Development and Public Service and Administration.
Eastern Cape
Members will assemble at Victoria Grounds in King Williams Town as from 09am and depart at 11am straight to the Provincial Department of Social Development to handover the memorandum at 13h00 where the MEC is expected to receive it.
- Deputy General Secretary Cde Zola Saphetha will address the march
Kwa-Zulu Natal
Members will converge at King Dinizulu Park (formally known Botha Park) from 9am and depart at 10:30 and proceed via Pixely Ka Seme to handover the memorandum at the Durban City Hall at 12:30 to the MEC.
- 1st Vice President Mike Shingange to address the march
Northern Cape
Members will assembly at Kemo as from 09am and depart at 10h00 straight to the provincial office of Social Development to handover the memorandum to the MEC or representative delegated at 12h00.
- National Treasurer Kgomotso Makhuphola to address the march
Western Cape
Members will assembly at Keizersgracht Street in Cape Town as from 10am and depart at 11h00, proceed to the provincial office of Social Development, Union House in 14 Queen Victoria Street to deliver a memorandum at 13h00 to the departmental representative as delegated by the MEC.
- 2nd Vice President Nyameka Macanda to address the march
Members of the media are invited to attend and to cover these marches.
For more information contact NEHAWU Media Liaison Officer at 082 455 2500 or kh...@nehawu.org.za
South Africa
COSATU statement on the SONA 2017
Sizwe Pamla, COSATU National Spokesperson, 10 February 2017
COSATU has noted the State of the Nation Address as presented by the President of the Republic of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, yesterday, 09 February 2017.
While the speech tried to deal with some of the issues that the federation raised in its pre-SONA expectations statement, we are concerned at the lack of detail on how and when some of these proposed and obviously necessary reforms will be completed.
The speech did fall seriously short on many issues and also failed to grapple with the enormity of the task of putting our economy on to a new growth path. We did not hear any concrete plans to dismantle the economic legacy we inherited from apartheid, nothing was concretely offered on how to rebuild the manufacturing industry, to eliminate the apartheid wage structure, to change the macro-economic policies, including using state-owned companies to restructure the economy.
There was no mention of banning labour brokers or any measures to strengthen collective bargaining. It was also frustrating to notice the silence on how government will address the varying governance crises, outsourcing and labour broking and retrenchments in Telkom, SAA, the Post Office, Eskom and other SOEs.
COSATU is disappointed at government's lack of a clear and concrete programme to ensure decent permanent jobs for all South Africans. Such a plan needs to bridge the gap that currently exists between business and labour;and also needs to be premised upon a living wage for all and not cheap and precarious labour.
We expected the SONA to also include specific targets per sector per month. This country needs to create at least 100 000 new jobs per month and big business should stop retrenching across the board ,including the lifting of the vacancy freeze by government departments.
We welcome though the efforts to make it easier and more attractive for people to invest in South Africa although further details are needed in this regard. The president also failed to mention the much more serious investment strike by those employers , who are sitting on more than R1 trillion in social surpluses, which they are refusing to invest in the economy. Surely this is the time to introduce a developmental state, determined to restructure the economy without solely relying on pleading with private sector to invest that money and create jobs.
We are happy with the commitment to drive economic growth with R900 billion in infrastructure and R500 billion in state expenditure and local procurement requirements.
The federation will like to hear more details on how to support key strategic sectors, e.g. manufacturing, agriculture, textiles, renewable energy and tourism. We eagerly await detailed report back by ministers on the 9 point plan, although, we would have preferred that these reports be included in the SONA.
COSATU expected the president to say something about the creation of a state financial institution. The Alliance already has a resolution to ensure that the Post Bank is converted into a State bank.
Agriculture
We welcome the renewed focus and commitment to speed up land reform and await government’s comprehensive plan on how to do so.
The plan needs to include providing support to new and existing farmers ,as well as to prioritise farm workers and rural women for land allocation and equity in farms.
The workers appreciate the R2.5 billion spent to assist farmers during the drought, but are disappointed that there were no conditions insisting that the beneficiaries of this rescue package protect worker’s jobs. We are unhappy that the president said nothing about the jobs crisis in the poultry sector.COSATU also insists that government needs to engage with labour and business on its proposed sugar tax to develop a plan to promote healthy lifestyles, without losing any further jobs in a bleeding economy.
Mining
We welcome the attention given to the need for transformation and to reduce the shocking levels of deaths and accidents on our mines. It’s disappointing though that government is still failing to hold mining companies accountable for high accident rates in the mines, including their failure to provide decent living and working conditions for all mine workers.
Government and big business also do not seem to have a plan in place to prevent job losses, and also to re-skill and retrain these retrenched workers. It is unacceptable that these workers are being dumped and abandoned, despite many of them having given their lives to build these companies.
Energy and environment
We are happy with government’s renewable energy commitments and expect Eskom to stop delaying renewable expansions. We welcome the President's commitment for Eskom to expand renewable energy, while we remain opposed to government's continued nuclear expansion commitments.
Going forward, we expect Eskom to stop with massive above inflationary increases.
We have noted with concern that SONA was silent on how we plan to achieve our climate change objectives as outlined in the Copenhagen and Paris Agreements.
Education and health
We welcome the 895 new and revamped schools but are disappointed that SONA did not indicate ,when we will finally do away with mud schools and school infrastructure backlog, in particular ensuring decent sanitation for all learners ;as well as ensuring the perpetual text book crisis is ended ,including the timeous payment of all teachers.
We are happy with the shifting of R32 billion to assist working and middle class tertiary students, including the assistance to relieve NSFAS student debt. We support the no fees increase for students from families earning less than R600, 000 per annum.
The federation is concerned though that government is taking too long to address the burning issue of free and affordable higher education. We welcome the commitment to speed up NHI implementation but we are worried it is under serious attack from the private sector and may be dangerously watered down by them. Government should remove private interests from the NHI as soon as possible.
We remain concerned at the never ending infrastructure, supplies, staffing and security crises across too many of our public hospitals including the shortage of clinics and ambulances.
Social Security
We support the commitment to tackle the scourge of drug abuse. But are worried that the SONA was silent on the debacle around the extension of the invalid contract of CSP to process social grant payments. This function needs to be in sourced back to SASSA and not outsourced to a contractor of dubious legal standing. COSATU is disappointed at the lack of mention of the need for comprehensive social security reform.
Municipalities
The federation supports the focus and commitment to train young people as plumbers but this is not enough. Government needs to establish a war room to address the water crisis. It needs to drive conservation, saving and desalination programmes.
We should also insist that municipalities stop making water unaffordable for the poor. Municipalities should also stop using the EPWP’s as a source of cheap labour for cash strapped municipalities.
Conclusion
Going forward , the federation pledges to support the broad thrust of some of the policies announced by the President, but will not stop opposing other policies we disagree with.
We demand that more be done to really take the nation on another developmental trajectory.
We will continue to fight against labour brokers and e-tolls, and are clearly disappointed by government’s silence on the need for affordable, accessible, safe and reliable public transport system, including addressing the crisis facing metro rail.
We will continue to tirelessly take forward discussions on the commitment made at the Alliance Summit in 2013, to realign the economic and labour market proposals of the NDP to the commitment to radical economic transformation.
Disgraceful conduct of the MP’s
We denounce and flatly reject the disgraceful, intolerant and immature behaviour of a rude minority of MPs from across party lines, but in particular the EFF that once again made a spectacle of the SONA.
We can only hope that they will one day realise their hooligan behaviour is a betrayal and embarrassment to the ordinary voters, who elected them to represent their interests in Parliament ,and a precedent that they will never be able to reverse for years to come.
The EFF has every right to protest, but not the right to collapse Parliament and deny other people from engaging on issues that affect the country.
Issued by COSATU
- See more at: http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=12410#sthash.0m3Jxugw.dpuf
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By the SACP editorial team
This evening President Jacob Zuma will deliver the State of the Nation Address in Parliament. Others would like the occasion to be reduced to President Zuma as a person (See Business Day, 9 February 2017).
It is not wrong to discuss our leaders, particularly the content of their character and contribution in relation to the collective leadership strengths that we need as a nation, as opposed to individualised approaches that promote or prey on hatred of a person. This does not mean that we must not hold our leaders accountable and that they must not reflect on their own weaknesses.
We must, for sure, and they must too, respectively. It is nevertheless misleading to shift attention away from the systemic factors that lie behind the historical origins, development and state of our challenges.
In his State of the Nation Address President Zuma must not be defocused. He must present a clear analysis of our structural problems as a nation, and the way forward from government policy. There are three interrelated challenges and problems that the State of the Nation Address must address, namely class inequality, which is further articulated along the lines of race, gender and spatial development and under-development, unemployment and poverty.
The Business Day, which is the mouthpiece of the bourgeoisie, would like society to believe that these systemic problems do not arise from capitalist production. On the contrary, class inequality, unemployment and poverty are the direct results, levers and conditions of the accumulation of wealth on a capitalist basis. The racial, gender and spatial character of the problems in South Africa, with Black people the worst affected, reflects the persisting legacy of the racist capitalist relations of production that were forged during colonialism and heightened during its apartheid era.
In addition, capitalist crisis, such as the ongoing crisis that first erupted in the United States in 2008 to become an international crisis of the system is responsible for the problems of class inequality, unemployment and poverty. The Business Day does not acknowledge that the ongoing trend of low economic growth in South Africa emanates from the crisis.
Close to one million workers were retrenched by the capitalists in South Africa as a result of both the crisis and profit maximisation strategies. Capitalists continued to dismiss workers and force them to swell the ranks of the unemployed. According to Statistics South Africa's Quarterly Employment Statistics released in June 2016, in the mining sector alone capitalists dismissed 32, 000 workers compared with the same quarter in 2015.
The capitalists have also been continuously restructuring workers by reducing indefinite employment contracts associated with benefits and increasingly replacing them with insecure labour brokering, perpetual temporary and casual forms of employment used to undercut wages, rollback benefits and maximise profit. As President Zuma will be delivering the State of the Nation Address, AngloGold Ashanti, where Sipho Pityana of "Save South Africa" is the Chairman, has expressed a further contemplation to add to the numbers by the dismissal of 849 workers.
We are told that distribution will only come from increased growth, as if there is no economic production already taking place in South Africa. If we are to pursue radical economic transformation, redistribution, including by means of a progressive tax on wealth and high incomes, must come from both the current production and future growth.
The State of the Nation Address must therefore present an introduction of long-term measures how the value of South Africa's surplus will be fairly distributed among those who are involved in its social production. These measures, even if economically not yet sufficient at present due to the force of prevailing objective factors, must pave the way towards an increasingly fair distribution of our nation's socially produced surplus. But in the course of their further development, they must expand the way and become inevitable as a means of achieving radical economic transformation fundamentally revolutionising the prevailing social relations of production.
The primary reason why there is economic inequality in our country is that historically until now the surplus that we socially produce as a nation is appropriated by capitalists in the form of profits. Those who produce it - the workers - get nothing from it. The reason why capitalists always insist on growth is that, rather than common good of the people as a whole, they are selfishly interested only in increasing the amount of the surplus that they are appropriating - which is basically the difference between the total value of all products and services and the sum of the values of the costs of production. This accumulation regime consists in suppressing the rate wages, which are, to the capitalists, seen as a cost. There will be no radical economic transformation without altering this social equation and ultimately turning it on its head!
This must finance among other societal needs the expansion of quality healthcare, clean water, housing, electricity, infrastructure and education and training at all levels including post-graduate studies and product and process innovation, research and development, mathematics, science and technology required to create jobs and participate productively in the fourth industrial revolution rather than enter the terrain as consumers.
We must avoid being the advertisers of what we will not deliver on. The fourth industrial revolution will destroy many existing jobs due to its advanced and top technological intensity compared to all the past three industrial revolutions.
We need to be clear about what future skills are in relation to this technological change and prepare the whole education system from the foundation level up to deliver quality on those skills. We also need to be clear where jobs will come from and strengthen our capacity in those areas.
- See more at: http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?ID=5883#sthash.nWSUNcSX.dpuf
International-Solidarity
Solidarity works! Sri Lankan workers vote for union
IndustriALL, 09 February 2017
Setting a strong standard for other workers in the Sri Lankan free trade zones, workers at industrial gloves manufacturer ATG voted to establish their union on 7 February.
IndustriALL Global Union has been celebrating a good win for workers this week after the multinational gloves company failed in its attempt to kick out the union from its two factories in Sri Lanka.
IndustriALL Executive Committee member Anton Marcus who heads the FTZ&GSEU union was able to shake hands with the ATG management for the first time on 7 February when the election result became clear. The union was forced by the company to struggle for over two years simply to win the right to bargain on behalf of the workers.
Abuses included intimidation, suspensions, threats, attempts to rig the list of voting workers, and promoting a worker in exchange for her lodging a police complaint against the union leader.
Now that the FTZ&GSEU is affirmed as the lawful bargaining agent at both ATG factories it can start to address the problems of health and safety, sexual harassment and employment conditions. The union is confident that these changes will improve the business performance of ATG. The vote had a 95 per cent turnout and comfortably achieved the required 40 per cent in favour.
International support and solidarity included calling on ATG corporate customers, regional partners, and Sri Lankan politicians. IndustriALL also requested the intervention of the G20 countries’ ambassadors to Sri Lanka. The German and the European Union Ambassadors to Sri Lanka played a vital role in demanding a free workplace ballot.
Workers in the other factories of the Katunayake Free Trade Zone do not have the luxury of exercising their right to freely decide on union representation. This ballot was conducted under the spotlight of international and domestic pressure.
IndustriALL General Secretary, Valter Sanches, congratulated the FTZ&GSEU:
We won’t forget the excellent help from Ambassadors Rohde and Margue, but this win was achieved by the ATG workers standing together in the face of threats and intimidation from their bosses. Let’s now look to replicate this victory and change the working conditions in ATG’s neighbouring factories.
FTZ&GSEU leader Anton Marcus said:
This is also a lesson for the employer to learn, that in the global economy it is not only profit and investments that travel across geographical boundaries, but also worker solidarity and organisational unity.
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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 010 219-1348
E-Mail: mam...@cosatu.org.za
