‘The entire economy of South Africa will be shut down’, warns the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), if the government fails to settle its dispute with striking public service workers.
The warning came on Tuesday from COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who called on all Cosatu-affiliated unions to give a week’s notice to their employers to embark on secondary strike action in solidarity with the public sector strike for an 8.6 per cent pay increase.
‘So by next Thursday if the current strike is not resolved, the entire economy of South Africa will be shut down,’ said Vavi.
COSATU’s call for a general strike was in response to the government sending in troops on Monday to 37 hospitals where workers had defied court orders to return to work after joining over a million workers out on strike since last Wednesday.
This Wednesday, Cosatu issued the following statement:
‘The Central Executive Committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions has declared its total support for the strike by 1.3 million public service workers and demands that the government moves immediately to make a new offer which can lead to a rapid conclusion to the strike.
‘COSATU warns that it will not allow a defeat of the public sector workers. We know the full political and economic implications if the public sector workers lose this battle.
‘In order to ensure that the strike does not fail, COSATU makes the following calls:
‘1. On all public sector workers to intensify the strike. We need a total shut down of the public sector until the government comes to its senses and accedes to the legitimate demands of the working class.
‘2. All COSATU affiliated unions will embark on solidarity action in support of the demands of the public sector workers.
‘In this regard, every COSATU union shall on the 26 August, submit notices to their respective employers that will allow them legal right to embark on secondary strikes. Our members and their communities (working class) are the ones on the receiving end of the current situation.
‘It is workers’ kids who have not been at school since the beginning of the strike; it is the workers and their families that rely on the functioning public hospitals.
‘The rich, which includes the elite in society, are hardly affected by the strike. Their kids are in private schools where teachers are better paid. They go to private hospitals to access healthcare.
‘We warn that the strike will also be protected and take as long as necessary, until the government, as the employer, accedes to the legitimate demands of the workers.
3. COSATU calls on all members of POPCRU (Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union) and SAPU (South African Police Union) and all police and other law enforcement officials not to allow the employer to use them to crush the strike.
‘…Our call on them is that they exercise maximum caution and avoid unnecessary conflict with workers whose only sin is to exercise their right to picket and demonstrate in support of their demands.
‘4. We call on civil society to support the strike and not to cross the picket lines. Volunteering is equal to scabbing and scabbing does deepen frustrations and anger amongst workers.
‘…The federation regrets the hardship which the strike has caused but insists that the responsibility for this must be firmly placed at the door of the government,…
‘Secondly, government has refused to sign an agreement on minimum service level agreements for the past 16 years. This would have allowed clarity with an agreed number of workers to continue providing a service in case of essential services.
‘Government has for all these years refused to sign so that it can unilaterally declare most of the public sector workers as essential services whilst declaring that there is no support for strike action by its employees.
‘We call on the government, even at this late hour, to sign an agreement with the public sector workers so that there is skeleton staff in areas where workers provide an essential service.
‘The federation also reiterates its strong insistence that the strike must be conducted in a peaceful, lawful and orderly manner and condemns any acts of violence and intimidation by anyone involved in the strike, including its own members.
‘…Our demands are legitimate and enjoy overwhelming support from the public.
‘Union pickets have been mainly very peaceful, but striking workers exercising their legal rights have come under attack from the police with intimidation, rubber bullets and arrests. What makes us even more angry is that during the FIFA world cup police were trained in civilised ways of crowd control.
‘Once their more important visitors left, they have now reverted back to the old apartheid-style “skiet and donder” (shoot and beat-up) with trigger-happy police shooting at workers in their backs. This we will take up with the leadership of government at the highest level.
‘…We are entitled to establish the legal pickets in public places outside workplaces. The police have no right to disperse pickets outside workplaces.
‘The unions are deeply disturbed by the outright lies that government has told the people of South Africa that there is an 8.5% wage increase offer that has been presented to the unions.
‘No offer was tabled at the PSCBC, a democratic institution set up for negotiations. Government has now decided to negotiate with the media instead of trade unions admitted to the council.
‘The unions latest statement issued by the government stating that in “real terms” government is offering public service unions an 8.5% increase, is pure misinformation aimed at causing confusion.
‘The government has added the Pay Progression – an old and hard fought gain by the Unions – on to the 7% salary increase offer to claim this 8.5% increase.…Labour is demanding a general salary increase of 8.6%.
‘The pay progression which is 1% for teachers and 1.5% for other public service employees, has been in place since the signing of Collective Agreement No 8 of 2003. It is also not automatic as workers first have to undergo performance evaluation before they are awarded the increase.
‘Government calculates pay progression as a wage increase knowing full well that not everyone qualifies and benefits from it and it is a flawed system that is open to abuse by the supervisors.
‘…This performance-based system is part of the existing conditions of service, which was not part of the 2010 negotiations and had never been part of any negotiation recently.
‘…This unilateral system is not an objective tool and bonuses are allocated on favouritism, nepotism and blatant unfairness.
‘…We would like to state categorically that the government’s offer at the Bargaining Council is a 7% general salary increase, R 700 housing allowance and 1st July as the implementation date.
‘…We also demand that SABC News apologise for broadcasting inaccurate news to the public.
‘…Government’s unashamed lies show the contempt which this government has for the citizens of this country and the crisis of leadership we have as a country if our own government lies to the public without a sense of shame.
‘We have noticed that despite government pleading poverty it has enough money to buy full page adverts to peddle its lies and also has money to transfer patients to the private hospitals.
‘With the private health receiving 2/3 of all money spent on health to provide services to 15% of the population, private hospitals are helping government to derive big profits.
‘Special courts were set up for the World Cup but now they are being used to punish striking workers when they should be established permanently to fight crime that is affecting everyone.
‘These are workers who are employed to serve the public and they are ready and willing to perform their duties as long as the government gives them what they deserve which is an 8.6% wage increase and a R1000 monthly housing allowance.
‘…The government ministers who deny workers their meagre wage increase have spent millions of rands on luxury vehicles and are living caviar lifestyles at the expense of the poor majority that is dependent on government services. This is a case of the shepherd feeding himself forgetting about the lambs.
‘We call on government to respect the democratic institutions and present a new offer…The ministers are wasting time playing games because they are not suffering and their children are not forced to use public hospitals and schools.
‘The entire government continues to fail the poor South Africans by failing to provide the necessary leadership to resolve the impasse.
‘Finally, COSATU repeats its demand that the government is responsible to end the strike by bringing a new offer to the table.
‘Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson),
‘Congress of South African Trade Unions, 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets, Braamfontein, 2017, P.O. Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa.’
On the same day COSATU issued the statement, its affiliate POPCRU called a press conference to announce its decision ‘to mobilise its members to join the ongoing national public sector strike’.
POPCRU, which organises members in the South African Police Services, Department of Correctional Services and Traffic Departments nationwide, also wanted to clarify its ‘stance on the recent provocation and assault of workers who are on a legal strike’.