Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 3 June 2026
Norman Mampane
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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
3 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!
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- COSATU presented its submission on the 2026/27 Budget's Appropriation Bill to Parliament
- South Africa
- COSATU welcomes Labour Court Contempt Proceedings Against CEPPWAWU Administrator
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Education International brings educators’ voice to the International Labour Conference
- The union busting playbook: exposed
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics #ClassWar
COSATU
presented its submission on the 2026/27 Budget's Appropriation Bill to Parliament
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 03 June 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) presented its submission on the 2026/27 Budget's Appropriation Bill to Parliament’s Standing Committee: Appropriations.
COSATU is extremely disappointed with the lackluster 2026/27 Budget and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework. Whilst appreciating that there are some important allocations that COSATU campaigned for in the Bill, as an overall package it fails to respond decisively
to the fundamental crises facing the working class and the economy, in particular a 43.7% unemployment rate, economic growth far below the 3% needed to create jobs, struggling public and municipal services and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), entrenched levels
of poverty and inequality, and endemic crime and corruption.
Tragically the Budget is focused on balancing the books not at aggressively kickstarting economic growth or tackling unemployment.
Key to providing an environment where the economy can take off and the lives of the working class improved, is to ensure frontline public services have the resources needed to fulfill their constitutional and developmental mandates.
We welcome positive allocations for health and education, in particular R7.8 billion for the National Health Insurance Grants, R24 billion for revitalising public healthcare, R92 billion for district health programmes and R21 billion for the employment of doctors
over the MTEF; and the recruitment of 3 000 staff to digitise civic services at Home Affairs.
Progress made eradicating over 4 323 ghost posts plus to digitise public procurement will help free funds for frontline services.
We are deeply worried that no funds have been allocated for the 10 000 permanent labour inspectors pledged in the State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Local government remains the Achille’s heel of the state with more than 60% of municipalities in financial distress and many struggling to provide basic services or pay staff.
The allocation of R27 billion to improve metros’ abilities to provide basic services and bill correctly is critical as are plans to strengthen national government’s ability to timeously intervene in and hold failing municipalities accountable. Plans to connect
over 320 000 houses to electricity and roll out 258 000 smart meters are welcome.
These interventions do not go far enough to capacitate often highly dysfunctional municipalities, tackle rising municipal debt or deal with corrupt and incompetent municipal management.
COSATU commends the substantial progress made stabilising and rebuilding key SOEs.
We, however, remain deeply opposed to Eskom’s unbundling. More must be done to enable Eskom to reduce the price of electricity, return Transnet and Metro Rail to full capacity to unlock mining, manufacturing and agricultural jobs as well as to provide efficient
public transport for urban workers.
The substantial infrastructure investments over the MTEF of R1.07 trillion, in particular for energy, rail, ports, water, roads and airports will help boost economic growth and jobs.
We are dismayed by the lack of real turnaround plans to set Denel, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Post Office and Postbank on the path to recovery.
SONA committed government to a bold plan to tackle our unacceptably high levels of crime and corruption, yet no new meaningful allocations have been provided for the Police, the Prosecuting Authority, Hawks or Judiciary to ensure they have the personnel, skills
or infrastructure capacity to win this existential war.
Additional allocations for the Border Management Authority as well as for the South African National Defence Force are important boosts, but the latter falls short of ensuring our military personnel receive the full support they require, in particular three
meals a day.
The absence of a bold stimulus package for SMMES, industrial and export sectors badly needed to boost economic growth and jobs is deeply worrying.
Allocating a meagre R3 billion for Small Business Development whilst providing R4 billion for bodyguards for politicians and cutting funding for the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition by 10% highlights the crisis of budget priorities.
COSATU is deeply angered that yet again not even an inflationary adjustment has been provided for the 8 million SRD Grant recipients, yet Members of Parliament were militant in demanding an increase for themselves over December.
It is equally shameful that allocations for the NSFAS threshold have not been adjusted for inflation. It is disappointing that the Presidential Employment Programme has not been increased despite SONA’s commitment to do so, and in fact has seen its funding
cut by half.
We are bewildered that more resources to boost the South African Revenue Service’s efforts to improve tax compliance have not been provided beyond a measly 2% annual adjustment.
Although there are important allocations for some frontline services and infrastructure, COSATU is extremely frustrated that Treasury and government collectively, have once again reduced the Budget to balancing books and missed the opportunity to table a bold
stimulus package that would fix public and municipal services, spur economic growth, boost employment, provide relief for the poor and unemployed, and ramp up tax compliance.
We cannot afford to continue to normalise 1% economic growth nor 43.7% unemployment.
The patience of the working class and society are not unlimited.
Issued by COSATU
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
COSATU welcomes Labour Court Contempt Proceedings Against CEPPWAWU Administrator
Zanele Sabela, COSATU Spokesperson, 3 June 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is counting down the days until 8 June, when the administrator of its Affiliate, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU), Sipho Sono, will appear before court to explain why he should not be held in contempt.
In January this year, the Labour Court ordered the removal of Sono as administrator of CEPPWAWU and appointed Gerhard Vosloo to replace him. Vosloo’s term was meant to start on 1 March, but to COSATU and CEPPWAWU’s shock, Sono didn’t pack his stationery and walk off into the sunset, instead he appealed the ruling and continued as administrator.
In March the Labour Appeals Court affirmed the earlier ruling and ordered Sono to vacate his role as CEPPWAWU administrator. Still, Sono refused to leave.
Now the Labour Court has summoned him to appear before it on 8 June to explain the following:
- Why he mustn’t be held in contempt of court.
- Imprisoned or fined
- Vacate CEPPWAWU premises and return all union property
- Ordered to pay costs
Sono will finally meet his reckoning after he continuously disregarded the court’s rulings while not lifting a finger to deliver on his mandate as administrator. When he was appointed, Sono was expected to appoint a facilitator to convene the union’s provincial and National congresses as per constitution, finalise outstanding audited financial statements and vacate as administrator by 12 December 2023.
Shamefully, Sono has not delivered on any of these tasks and yet he insists on staying, all the while paying himself exorbitant fees. He is a stain on his profession.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
Education International brings educators’ voice to the International Labour Conference
Trade union rights are human rights Trade union rights Trade union rights, 1 June 2026
Education International (EI) will bring a diverse delegation of 17 representatives to the114th International Labour Conference (ILC), taking place from 1–12 June 2026 in Geneva. Reflecting EI’s global reach, the delegation includes members from all regions of the world and is led by EI General Secretary David Edwards, who is scheduled to meet with ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo.
The ILC is the annual convening of the International Labour Organization, held in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations. It brings together representatives of governments, as well as workers’ and employers’ organisations from around the world. As the ILO’s highest decision-making body, the Conference is where global labour priorities are debated, international labour standards are adopted, and their implementation is reviewed and supervised.
In addition to leading EI’s participation, Edwards also serves as Chair of the Council of Global Unions (CGU), a key platform for advocacy among Global Union Federations.
During the Conference, EI will closely monitor the work of the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS), a cornerstone of the ILO’s supervisory system. As every year, the Committee will review the implementation of labour standards and examine specific country cases of trade union rights violations. EI will engage actively in the discussions, particularly where issues of trade union rights, education workers’ conditions, and fundamental labour standards are at stake.
In the address to the plenary, EI will welcome the ILO Director-General’s report, Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Decent Work, while firmly highlighting a critical omission: the insufficient recognition of the teaching profession. Quality education is impossible without qualified, supported, and properly valued teachers. Any vision of the future of work that sidelines educators fundamentally misreads the foundations of sustainable and inclusive societies. Education draws its strength, its purpose, and its transformative power from the human relationship between teachers and learners—an essential dimension that no technological development can replace or replicate.
EI will also take the floor in the general discussion on decent work for peace and resilience, with a particular focus about teachers conditions in Iran after another disrupted schoolyear. This intervention will highlight the critical role of educators in sustaining social cohesion and democratic values, as well as the serious challenges they face in contexts marked by war and repression.
Beyond this, the EI delegation will follow the deliberations of the Committee on Equality at Work, Social dialogue and tripartism, as well as the standard-setting discussions on decent work in the platform economy, both of which carry significant implications for education personnel and the broader world of work.
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The union busting playbook: exposed
28 May, 2026
There is an industry whose sole purpose is to stop workers organizing. It is well-funded, professionally organized and operating on every continent. It is often called union avoidance and is a set of tactics refined over decades. Whatever it is called it is in fact a deliberate assault on a fundamental human right.
The scale of the industry is staggering. A recent article in The Guardian quoted a 2026 report by the Economic Policy Institute which found that US employers spend more than US$1.5bn a year on union opposition efforts. This includes US$442m annually on specialist union-avoidance consultants alone. Amazon spent US$26.6m on such consultants in 2025. A previous EPI report found that US employers are charged with violating labour law in 41.5 per cent of all union elections. Union density in the US has fallen from 20.3 per cent in 1983 to ten per cent today. The union-busting industry bears significant responsibility for that decline. As one of the report’s authors put it, this is millions or even billions of dollars that is not going towards workers or investing in their workplace.
The tactics and why they are wrong
Anti-union campaigns follow a recognizable pattern of tactics designed to suppress workers’ free choice through fear, misinformation and pressure.
Mandatory captive-audience meetings. Employers force workers to attend meetings during working hours where management delivers one-sided anti-union messaging. Workers cannot leave and there is no right of reply. At Mercedes-Benz in Alabama, this was one of the tactics so egregious that IndustriALL withdrew from its global framework agreement with the company. In the agreement Mercedes-Benz had explicitly committed to neutrality.
Scripted one-on-one pressure. Supervisors, coached by outside consultants, are deployed to have individual conversations with workers. The message is always the same: a union will put your job at risk, damage your relationship with management, threaten investment.
Paid consultants and surveillance. Specialist firms are brought onto company premises. Workers often do not know who these people are or who is paying them. Increasingly, digital surveillance is deployed alongside them: monitoring social media, flagging workers who discuss union matters and infiltrating online groups to track organizing activity.
Dismissal of union activists. Firing workers for union activity is one of the most powerful weapons in the playbook. It sends a clear message to every other worker watching. At the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama, a 25-year employee with a spotless record was disciplined for telling colleagues he had union cards. The leading organizer, Jeremy Kimbrell, who had worked at the plant for 26 years, was fired in February 2025 on what the UAW describes as a fabricated pretext.
Law firms as instruments of union avoidance. The law firms and consultants at the heart of this industry openly advertise their services. Their own promotional materials describe “defeating a union” as “gratifying,” promise to help employers maintain “union-free workplaces” and offer to get workers “to vote non-union.” Several have documented records of unlawful conduct in previous campaigns. These are findings by federal labour judges that were publicly available before the companies that hired them signed the contracts.
A global problem in our sectors
Union busting is not isolated to the US. IndustriALL affiliates around the world encounter it.
Türkiye is one of the worst environments in the world for union organizing. Unions document dismissals, threats and employer interference across manufacturing and garment sectors. Workers at Digel Textile joined the garment workers union TEKSIF after it was confirmed as the legitimate collective bargaining agent. The company responded by dismissing four leading union members and threatening workers with factory closure if they did not resign. Metal-workers’ union Birleşik Metal-İş was certified as the official bargaining agent at SAG Hidrolik. The company dismissed three union members without cause and threatened workers that the factory would close if they stayed in the union.
In Germany, Adidas left the sectoral collective bargaining agreement by downgrading its industry membership to avoid collective bargaining obligations — a decision whose repercussions extend across its global supply chains.
In Malaysia, IndustriALL filed a formal ILO complaint in March documenting union busting across twelve companies in the electronics, semiconductor, aerospace, automotive and paper sectors. Workers at Nexperia voted for their union with nearly 96 per cent support. At Boeing Composites Malaysia, 85 per cent voted in favour. Yet winning the ballot was not the end of the struggle. Companies dismissed workers and threatened migrant workers with deportation. Companies weaponized the courts, filing challenge after challenge to delay union recognition by years, in one case more than a decade.
Workers have the right to know
ILO Conventions 87 and 98 enshrine the right to organize and bargain collectively. IndustriALL embeds it in the global framework agreements it negotiates with multinationals. Those companies have committed, in writing, to uphold it everywhere they operate.
Says IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie:
“Union busting violates those commitments. When a company signs a global framework agreement promising neutrality and then deploys tactics designed to defeat union campaigns, it is not navigating a legal grey area. It is breaking its word and undermining a fundamental human right. Freedom of association is not optional and it is not a local exception.”
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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 line: 010 219-1348