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News and Publicity - Press Statement: COSATU CEC Statement COSATU Communications Department - 1999-11-25 |
Central Executive Committee Statement November 25 1999 COSATU’ Central Executive Committee (CEC) met in Johannesburg on the 23rd to 24th of November 1999. This was the last constitutional meeting of the year and the century. The following were among the issues discussed. RecruitmentCampaign Through the annual recruitment programme, COSATU during the month of October recruited more than 20 000 members to its affiliates. In a similar campaign, we recruited more than 50 000 workers during the month of April 1998. This represents an important achievement in the organisation of working people and strengthens their voice, particularly as workers and the working class face a purge of job destruction led by big business. The recruitment campaign as we have said before is not a once-off campaign. The CEC reaffirmed its commitment to organise and recruit more members into the federation and called on COSATU cadres to intensify the campaign within the vision outlined at its Special National Congress to reposition the federation to meet challenges of the new millennium. ViolenceAgainst Women and Children and HIV/AIDS Campaign In the Special National Congress, we adopted a completely new approach to the seriousness with which we take the campaign against HIV/AIDS and women and children abuse. All our regions except Eastern Cape launched this campaign against HIV/AIDS and Violence against Women and Children this week with remarkable success. We have during the launch trained no less than 10 000 of our Shop Stewards. We previously trained trainers to conduct an intensive course on the role of our Shop Stewards in our campaign against HIV/AIDS and women and children abuse. In turn the Shop Stewards are running training of our membership in their workplaces during their lunchtime as from today the 25 November 1999 until the 01 December 1999 – the World AIDS Day. COSATU will participate in the sixteen days of activism against violence against women which begins on the 25th November to the 10 December 1999 – the international human rights Day. Stanbic-NedcorMerger We reiterate our rejection and condemnation of the Nedcor-Stanbic merger. The CEC reaffirmed the federation’s position against the Stanbic-Nedcor merger on grounds that: • It will result in the loss of 10 000 or more jobs, and thus send workers and their families joining the already frightening army of the unemployed and the poor. Multiply this 10 000 by at least 10 other dependents supported by each worker, you will realise that it is at least 100 000 people will suddenly loose a source of income. Our economy and country can not afford one more job loss. • The merger will further escalate one of the fundamental problems of this economy - the concentration of wealth and resources in the hands of a few. The merger creates a near- monopoly dispensation in the banking industry. In any monopoly, the victims are the consumers who currently have little benefits from bank competition and will become hostages of high interest payments, high bank charges and the deterioration of services. The CEC also received a report from the federation’s affiliate, the South African Society of Banking Officials (SASBO) which refuted claims that the union has been fully consulted on the merger. SASBO said that it was merely informed of merger plans through letters and memoranda from Nedcor and that at no stage was there an attempt to conduct a genuine process of consultation. There has been initial interaction between COSATU and Nedcor. The interaction will continue at more senior level with the view of either stopping the merger from taking place or ensuring that our members and their families do not carry the economic cost of the merger. We together with our affiliate – SASBO are in close contact with our legal teams with the view of taking possible action to interdict a merger. DefendingCentralised Bargaining in the Public Sector The CEC noted the attempts by some in government to use the discussion on the new Remuneration Policy to destroy hard won centralised bargaining by proposing decentralisation of the negotiation on conditions of service to Provinces, national departments and sectors. There have been public statements by some in government questioning the legitimacy and relevance of the processes and agreements reached in the Public Sector Coordinating Bargaining Council. Since its inception COSATU with the full support of the its Alliance partners including the ANC have fought and won the principle of centralised bargaining. This principle is enshrined in the LRA and various policy positions of the Alliance. This new attempt to undermine the gains of workers including public sector workers falls within an endevour by some in government to undermine solidarity amongst workers and weaken their collective strength as they pursue a wage freeze on Public Servants. The CEC calls on those advocating this approach to forthwith halt their programme. We also warn that the pursuance of this strategy will set the government and COSATU in a collusion course that is not in the interest of our transformation agenda. COSATU shall with the same vigour it used to win centralised bargaining defend this right. Currently, and in reality there is no bargaining in the public sector. This has been completely undermined by the unilateral implementation of the government final offer. There can be no engagement between COSATU unions and the government on the rest of the working conditions related matters until the matter still in dispute for the current financial year is finally put to rest. In this regard we call on the government and the unions to continue exploring ways of putting an end to the current dispute even before the arbitrators announce their verdict in January 2000. PensionFund Some bosses have been defrauding the pension fund of workers by re-valuing the assumptions used to calculate the retirement benefits of members of the pension fund. COSATU serves a public caution to all its members to not transfer out of pension funds or re- value the pension fund assumption used to calculate the pension funds until the loophole in the law has been remedied. COSATU in discussions with the Minister of Finance and Financial Services Board is determining new legislation. We call on the Minister to speed up this process. 6. Labour Market Review The CEC reaffirmed COSATU rejection of the Minister of Labour’s Sectoral Determination on Small Business. The Ministry has so far failed to explain to the public how a blanket exemption (downward variation) will create jobs for the unemployed. The determination clearly represents a significant shift and undermines the transformative programme of the past five years. Simply put, a downward variation that is not attached to specific sectors and a turnover creates a two-tier labour market! We believe that the determination must be read together with calls for a youth wage by senior officials of the Department of Labour. COSATU is weighing its options including a possible challenge of the sectoral determination in the Constitutional Court. We strongly believe that the determination covering workers in small business sits in contradiction with the constitutional provisions on discrimination and fair labour standards. In the meantime we shall continue an interaction with the Department of Labour as decided in a meeting held between COSATU and the Minister. Challenginga Court decision to sue SAMWU COSATU supports the decision of SAMWU to appeal against the Court decision on the matter regarding the suing of SAMWU by its members who were dismissed as a result of a wild-cat strike in 1992/3. The irony of this is that it SAMWU that did every thing in its power to persuade members to go back to work. It is SAMWU that facilitated their reinstatement by the new council elected under the new dispensation. Suing of the union for lost of income as a result of a strike action is a dangerous precedence we can not afford. COSATU shall support SAMWU’s appeal against the judgement. TelkomRetrenchment The retrenchment in Telkom must be seen within the context of the job loss bloodbath. We condemn Telkom retrenchments! Retrenchment of 5000 in Telkom shall have a spin off to the electronic industry as a whole. We are seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister of Telecommunication as well as the Minister of Trade and industry to seek their political intervention. COSATUSection 77 Notice COSATU is extremely concerned at the attempt by government representatives and big business in particular to frustrate workers rights to embark on protected socioeconomic action regarding the issue of the job loss bloodbath and other related issues. This can only be interpreted as not taking job losses and unemployment seriously. When we should be developing a national response and awareness to unemployment, the business leaders has sought to push the matter resulting from their investment strike under the carpet. We are happy that at least progress has bee made in the NEDLAC management committee in taking this matter to a conclusion. Buy Local Campaign COSATU is launching a buy local campaign to ensure that consumers in South Africa become aware of the linkages between the products that they buy and the jobs that are created or maintained in South African industry. This festive season when most products are bought in the South African economy is being declared a “Buy South African Christmas”
