6. R33 Million textile wage settlement

Wage negotiations in the textile industry are almost completed. Of the 9 sub-sectors covered by the National Textile Bargaining Council (NTBC), seven have settled, one is still negotiating and one only starts negotiations in October this year.

Wage settlements have been reached, without strike action, for 94% of the 17 000 employees in those textile sub-sectors for which wage increases were due as at 1 August this year. This is a credit to the system of centralised bargaining in the textile sector.

The COSATU-affiliated Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) represents 87% of all bargaining unit employees in the textile industry. To date, textile sector wage settlements average between 5.5 percent and 6 percent. At an average basic weekly wage of about R670 per week, this means that the settlements have so far reached to represent a cash injection into the economy of almost R33 million this year alone.

7.Memorandum handed over to Kraft Food

COSATU members assembled at the Makro taxi rank in Woodmead, Sandton on Tuesday, to hand over a memorandum to the management of Kraft Foods (SA) Pty.
All meetings to resolve the dispute between the two parties have failed. During the march letters of support from international IUF campaign were also handed in to the company.

According to Siphiwe Mgcina of FAWU, the march went well however they are still waiting for a response from Kraft Food management.

“ The memorandum gave the company 48 hours to respond, we hope to get a response soon hopefully today,” he said.
FAWU workers have been on strike since May 25 this year as a result of a dispute over wages and retrenchments. They believe that the company has plans to downscale permanent workers in favour of casuals.
The multinational also refuses to pay workers the norm of three weeks severance packages like other South African companies do. Workers have accepted a 6, 5 percent wage increase but management reverted back to their offer of 5 percent.

8.Kumba strike finally called off

NUM members that took part in the Kumba strike finally went back to work on Monday. This was after a series of engagements that took place among its members over the past weekend and early Monday morning reaching a conclusion to end the strike.

The week long strike also saw the leadership of both parties stepping in last Friday to assist with finding a solution to what was destined to be a crippling strike for Kumba.

" Our members are pleased with the outcome as presented to them after our talks with the Chief Executive of Kumba. We allowed for consultations over the weekend in order for us to get proper feedback today. The discipline of our members while on strike deserves praise and their ability to compromise for purposes of settling the strike, even though they thought they still had an upper hand is commendable in that it demonstrates maturity", said Frans Baleni, NUM General Secretary.

The company made a revised offer of a 9% wage increase for lower earners and a 7.75% for higher earners. It is understood that various allowances would then be used to push the percentage earnings to 8%.

" We need to engage the company after our own assessment of the strike so we can frankly talk about some of the things that could have caused this strike. One must recall that, before this action, it's been 19 years since we had a strike in Kumba. Now either management has begun to take things for granted or there are those who thought we couldn't call the strike off. Hats off to BAMCWU, small as it is, because they showed what worker solidarity is about - beginning and ending the strike together, acting as a collective", Jackie Thsimanegape, NUM Coordinator at Kumba.

9.Statement for National Women's Day Wednesday

On this historic 50th anniversary of the Women’s March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956, the Congress of South African Trade Unions pays tribute to those 20 000 women who protested at the extension of pass laws to women, and to the millions of women who have followed in their footsteps in the struggle for liberation.

As well as acknowledging the outstanding role of Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Dora Tamana, we remember too the part played by thousands of other unsung heroines who struggled and sacrificed over many years to liberate our people.
With courage and determination, they fought back against the three interrelated forms of oppression that black women faced – as women, as blacks and as workers. Their struggle was critical in winning for us our twelve years of democracy and the advances we have made in those years.

Thanks in no small part to their courage and determination, our democratically elected government has repealed old laws that discriminated against women, especially black women, embedded gender equality into our constitution and passed new laws to promote gender equity in employment, and human rights for women in the community and the family.
Hundreds of South African women today hold high office in government, parliament and civil society, shattering the old myth that only men have the skills and ability needed to be leaders and hold the most senior jobs.

The lives of thousands of women have been transformed through the extension of basic services like water, electricity, sewerage and housing to more and more communities. This has begun to the massive task of freeing women from at least some of the burdens of household labour and given many more of them the chance to seek a job or start a small business.
But we would be dishonouring the memory of those heroines of 1956, if we were to be complacent about the huge problems women still confront half a century later. Despite the advances of the last twelve years, millions of poor, working class women still battle against unemployment, poverty, discrimination and abuse.

No less then 75percent of African women under 30 are jobless! African women comprise only one in five formal workers, yet they are half of all the unemployed. If we include people too discouraged actively to seek work, the unemployment rate for women as a whole is almost 50percent, compared to 34percent for men. For African women, the rate is 53%.
And the situation is not getting any better. Over the last few years the high level of the rand has caused the loss of thousands of jobs in industries such as clothing and textiles, which employ a high proportion of women.

And the rise of women into top positions in government and parliament has clearly not been reflected in other sectors. The last annual report of the Commission for Employment Equity revealed that in 2002 women held only 14percent of top management positions, a tiny improvement of 1.3 percent over 2000. Black women held no more than 2percent of these positions. In the slightly lower category of senior management positions, women hold 21percent, a rise of just 0.6 percent and black women held only 5 percent.

On the other hand, sectors where women workers predominate - such as government services, retail, clothing, food processing and domestic labour - still have relatively low pay and bad conditions. Women still find it harder to get promotions and training opportunities, and are less likely to get promoted to supervisory positions and management.
Even the trade unions are not meeting the challenge to achieve equity in their ranks. Around 40percent of COSATU members are women, yet they hold only 27% of positions in national leadership. There are only two women general secretaries and only one union president.

Women workers are also increasingly affected by the growing trend of casualisation and subcontracting, which is further reducing their living standards and job security. Many employers still pay women scandalously low wages, which on average are still way below those of men.
And all this is definitely not because women have low levels of education and skills. According to government’s September 2002 Labour Force Survey, African women in the labour force had a higher average education level than African men. Yet they are more likely to unemployed or doing unskilled, low-paid jobs.

Women also generally still do most of the work to maintain their homes and families. Yet most employers disregard these family responsibilities, do not provide childcare or flexitime or give enough time off for family commitments and maternity.
The spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases has made all these problems even worse. It not only affects more women than men but as it is also usually women who have to look after sick family members, which requires more time off work.
Outside work as well, many women still face serious problems. Many have to spend additional hours working in the house, especially those who still do not have basic services such as electricity and water. In 2002 one in ten African women still spent at least five hours a week fetching water, and one in seven spent that much time collecting wood.

Worst of all, far too many women face abuse, even violence, in their families and communities. This is made worse for unemployed women who find it hard to leave violent and abusive partners because they have no separate income.
The trade unions must find ways to give women the chance to develop their skills and self-confidence, so that they can lead the struggle for their emancipation. It is no accident that most of the leaders on that original Women’s March in 1956 started their lives of struggle in the labour movement.

COSATU has from its inception been committed to organising women and the other most vulnerable sectors of our society. It stands by the national democratic revolution’s strategic objective to build a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. Our economic liberation must therefore involve the upliftment of the poor, the majority of whom are African and women.

Samora Machel, the leader of the liberation struggle in Mozambique, once said: “The liberation of women is not act of charity but a fundamental precondition for the success of our revolution.” These words are still relevant today as we mark National Women’s Day this Wednesday, 9 August 2006.