THE working class and the poor have no good story to tell about how their lives have been changed for the better, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) president Andrew Chirwa said on Monday.
Speaking at the opening of NUMSA’s national bargaining conference in Pretoria, Chirwa said: ‘There is no good story to tell. It is a fairy tale. The working class and poor people have a bad story to tell.’
Nothing had been achieved to change the lives of the poor, he added, declaring: ‘We cannot lie for ever.’
Condemning the ANC government and SACP, he said: ‘In 1994 we said South Africa will be a better place to live, unemployment will be halved in 10 years. Unemployment was supposed to be 12 per cent by now.
‘What have we achieved in this regard? We are not moving forward. Instead we are worse than ten years ago.’
He said all the ANC had achieved was replacing white capitalists with black capitalists.
The struggle for freedom had got rid of apartheid, but capitalism remained.
Chirwa added: ‘The working class, employed and unemployed, is under siege.’
Citing the huge rise in the cost of living, he said: ‘For the first time a litre of petrol is about R15.’
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the North West province has noted the high fuel price increase in the country.
‘Since 1st of January 2014 the fuel price has increased by more than R1 a litre which gives an average of close to ten per cent increase on the fuel cost.
‘What COSATU has also noted is that the increase in the fuel cost carries along with it a number of commodities which are transported by fuel using modes of transport or which are produced using fuel.
‘The high fuel cost will contribute to making the lives of our poor people difficult and this will also reduce their take-home pay as some of the disposable income is taken by the fuel increase and the high toll gates such as the most expensive toll gate in the country at Swartruggens.
‘This high fuel cost is also a major contributor to the high cost of food and thus making more people in our country to go to bed hungry.
‘COSATU has also noted that the minister of finance has added an additional 20 cents per litre on the price of petrol and this will go to the fuel levy and the road accident fund, but we believe that this will be paid directly by the consumer, putting them more into poverty.
‘COSATU has also noted that there will be increases in the toll fees throughout the country and this is another burden on the poor.
‘COSATU believes that the state can do something in mitigating the high fuel cost as in other countries in the region.
COSATU also believes that the lack of reliable safe and affordable public transport contributes to the high use of fuel as most people use their private cars to commute between home and work and therefore the state must speed up the programme to roll out reliable public transport in all communities.
‘The burden on the increase on fuel will be the same burden on the increase of the toll fee that is coming and we are going be trapped in deep poverty in particular the poor working class who are travelling in the N4 road on a daily basis, for a person who works in Zeerust travelling every day must have R200 for toll gates and petrol money every day.
‘COSATU calls on the government to cap the increase of fuel price and speed up the discussions on the reducing of the expensive toll gate of Swartruggens.
Earlier, in its response to the COSATU National Office Bearers’ statement of 4th March 2014, NUMSA concluded: ‘No significant worker struggle has been taken up by Cosatu since September 2012 and therefore calling for a Special National Congress is not an option, it is a must if we are to rescue the Cosatu of Elijah Barayi and Jay Naidoo.
‘It is now clear for everyone to see that COSATU is transforming into a conveyor belt and toy telephone.
‘South Africans and the world must be rest assured that NUMSA shall fight the bitter fight to stay in COSATU even after we are suspended or expelled.’
Meanwhile, the COSATU-affiliated Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) has vowed to step up its fight for a living wage.
SACTWU held its Annual National Bargaining Conference from 6 to 9 March 2014, in Durban.
It met under its union’s national theme for the next three years, as adopted by its 12th National Congress held in August last year: ‘Unity, Cohesion & Radical Transformation for Sustainable Growth & Decent Work’.
The Conference was attended by 430 delegates and union officials – double the amount of delegates in previous years.
This followed its 12th National Congress decision to broaden worker participation and shop floor democracy by expanding the Conference to involve more worker leaders and workplaces in its collective bargaining processes.
Delegates were 400 shop stewards representing 99,000 SACTWU members in the clothing, textile, leather, distribution and related sectors in all parts of South Africa.
The Conference noted that SACTWU will this year negotiate in three national bargaining councils (clothing, textiles and leather), two provincial bargaining councils (canvass goods in Gauteng and laundry in KwaZulu-Natal), eight company group level negotiations (including Service Products/Sheltered Employment) and in just over 100 plant level wage bargains.
The outcomes of its negotiations will affect over 100,000 clothing, textile, leather, footwear, distribution and related workers.
The main purpose of the Conference was to consolidate nationally the union’s workplace-collected living wage demands for the 2014 round of substantive negotiations.
While textile workers line up to fight for a living wage, the living wage strike by platinum miners is continiung.
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) management’s application for the executive leadership of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) to be fined or arrested was dismissed by the Labour Court last week as the wage strike entered its seventh week.
Last Thursday Judge Andre van Niekerk dismissed the application to have AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa and AMCU national treasurer Jimmy Gama, arrested or fined.
Gama said last Friday: ‘We are happy that Amplats’s attempts to use courts to fight a collective bargaining battle were hampered.
‘Their application lacked credence and was based on their desperation.’
The judge found that the interim court order on picketing rules granted last month was ambiguous and said that the company had failed to establish that Mathunjwa and Gama had failed or refused to comply with the order granted on January 24.
Amplats wanted the court to hold the union’s office-bearers in contempt of court for failing to comply with a court order that was granted on the second day of AMCU’s wage strike.
The company blamed AMCU’s leaders for ignoring the interim interdict that compelled members to comply with picketing rules.
These rules were established at a meeting between the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and employers.
AMCU had been absent from the meeting and has subsequently challenged the picketing rules as it says it is unhappy with some aspects.
The union now has until March 14 to show cause why the interim order delineating picketing rules should not be made a compulsory order.
In its application papers, Amplats cited incidents of AMCU members inciting violence, causing damage to property, and preventing non-striking employees from going to work.
Some of the instances also included allegations that members had gathered at picketing sites armed with knobkieries and other dangerous weapons.
The trade union’s advocate, Naseem Cassim, argued that the court interdict and the demand for the AMCU office bearers to be arrested were part of a strategy to break the union.
He said: ‘It was little more than a stratagem to undermine the ability of the union and its members to exercise the right to strike, and that an order for costs was appropriate.’
The case appeared before the court on February 21, and at the time neither the union nor the respondents had filed an answering affidavit.
The case was postponed to last Wednesday for Mathunjwa, Gama and AMCU to file responding affidavits.
Judgment was passed the following day.
It was agreed that for the rest of the respondents, responding affidavits would be made at a later stage.
More than 70,000 members of Amcu have been on strike at Amplats, Lonmin and Impala Platinum since January 23, in support of their demand for a R12,500 basic monthly wage for the lowest-paid underground workers.
Amplats has also sued AMCU for R591 million in damages during the strike.