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Central Executive Committee - 16-02-06 |
Central Executive Committee - 13-15 February 2006
The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Congress of South African Trade Unions held its first meeting of 2006 on 13-15 February. The CEC is constituted by four representatives (Presidents, General Secretaries and their deputies) from COSATU's 21 affiliated unions. It discussed a broad range of issues, including the following.
1. Jobs and Poverty Campaign
The CEC agreed that the Jobs and Poverty Campaign must be maintained and intensified, but postponed all dates by one month because of the distractions caused by the holiday period break. Locals are compiling blacklists of bad employers.The programme will highlight issues on which unions are engaged in battle, including:
a) Transnet restructuring (privatisation, outsourcing etc)
b) Local government and SAMWU disputes (organisational rights and privatisation)
c) Woolworth's and SACCAWU dispute (wages and working conditions)
d) Farm workers and FAWU disputes (rights and compliance issues)
e) Auto/Motor Industry and NUMSA disputes (pending retrenchments at Ford, etc)
The dates and programme are as follows:
1. March will see demonstrations at the companies blacklisted by COSATU locals
2. April will see affiliates' sector summits on the following dates:
* Manufacturing - 19 April
* Services - 20 April
* Mining and construction - 24 April
* Public Sector - 25 April
3. May will see sector strikes as follows:
* Manufacturing - 09 May
* Public Sector - 11 May
* Mining - 16 May
* Services - 18 May
2. Superior Courts Bill
COSATU completely rejects the proposal in the current draft of the Superior Courts Bill which will virtually eliminate the Labour Courts that provide critical specialist knowledge and competency around this important area for the economy and society. In addition, the current Superior Courts Bill does not provide for Nedlac to play any role in the appointment of judges to hear labour matters. These proposals contradict consensus reached in Nedlac.COSATU will engage the portfolio committees in parliament to address these fundamental problems. Should we fail, all labour federations in Nedlac have already agreed to submit a Section 77 notice and, if engagement there deadlocks, embark on protest action.
3. Preparations for National Congress
COSATU's 9th National Congress is in September this year. It will assess how well we have implemented our 2015 Programme adopted at the 8th National Congress and how it can be strengthened moving forward. Congress will ask to itself whether we are succeeding in consolidating working class power to create quality jobs towards our 30th anniversary in 2015, in line with our strategic plan.To facilitate this assessment, the CEC approved a plan to look at the state of COSATU affiliates systematically and in detail, as well as a study to look at the strength of unions in the South. We received the initial report of the workers' survey that we commissioned in November 2005.
We also presented the first draft of a political assessment for the congress, which will be reviewed in provincial and affiliates' congresses in the coming months.
The draft political report assessed the key challenges faced by COSATU and its allies in 2006 and beyond. We noted that 2005 was perhaps the most difficult year from the point of divisions that engulfed the Alliance as a whole, in particular the ANC. On the surface the main cause of debates in the Alliance was the handling of the Jacob Zuma affair. Yet this was a symptom of underlying divisions over the evolution of the democratic movement since 1994. These centre on declining mass mobilisation and participation in decision making in the ANC and the state, which led to the sidelining of the Alliance and many other activists from decision making.
The decline in the public debate on the Jacob Zuma matter and related divisions does not mean that these issues have been resolved. The events around the appearance of Jacob Zuma at the Johannesburg High Court serve as a reminder that the Alliance must return to these issues as soon as possible.
4. Local government elections
We reiterate our call to all workers and their families to mobilise for a decisive ANC victory in the elections on March 1. In the next two weeks, the CEC will lead all COSATU cadres in an intensified mobilisation. We will cover every region, but focus on hot spots where our provincial leadership identify difficulties.We recognise that many challenges face the Alliance elections campaign. A particular difficulty for COSATU is that some of our unions - notably SAMWU, SADTU and SATAWU - have serious grievances about how some parts of government have handled collective bargaining and workers' conditions. We will do everything in our power to ensure that the ANC and the Alliance revisit these challenges and the lessons for the future soon after the elections.
We call on ANC and Alliance members who have stood as independents to immediately withdraw their candidatures and join the democratic movement in mobilising our people for ANC approved candidates. COSATU will not support any independent candidates no matter how valid their grievances are against the ANC or government. True revolutionaries battle within the ANC and Alliance to correct problems. They don't run outside and stand in opposition to it and in the process weaken the movement.
5. ASGI-SA
The CEC discussed COSATU's submission to the Deputy President on the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative (ASGI-SA), which is being distributed separately, and broadly endorsed it.The ASGI-SA framework identifies the important problem which is slow and inequitable growth, and points to some key reasons rooted in the inherited economic structure. While many of the proposed solutions have considerable merit, however, they do not adequately reflect the overall aim of inclusive, shared growth, and taken together seem inadequate to achieve the desired aims.
COSATU is only able to support ASGI-SA if agreement is reached that:
* ASGI-SA needs to be fundamentally redesigned to ensure that our common commitment to shared rather than inequitable growth runs through all its programmes.
* Proposals to reduce rights for workers in small business, weaken the scope of centralised bargaining and possibly use regulatory impact assessments to attack labour rights are removed.
7 The specific proposals in the document, for instance on sectors and infrastructure projects, require much more work to secure alignment around a common developmental vision.
7 The Alliance will set in place a practical programme to develop a common understanding of the broader growth trajectory, identifying the role of all the major sectors and social programmes in establishing a more equitable economy.
While we appreciate the important contribution a programme such as ASGI-SA could make, it cannot be taken forward effectively outside the Alliance commitment to a transformatory growth project.
6. 2010 World Cup
The CEC reiterated its demand that labour must be represented on the World Cup Organising Committee. This is an historic event for every South African, with immense potential to create jobs and improve the lives of the people. It is outrageous that the trade unions have not been involved at the highest level.COSATU wants action immediately and specifically co-option of a labour representative within the next two weeks. Failure of SAFA to do so will lead into an unprecedented confrontation between SAFA and COSATU. We will mobilise our members to attend en masse all meetings of the Local Organising Committee until they agree that labour is an important player and must be brought on board.
The CEC also discussed the disastrous state of South African soccer, including the Egyptian fiasco and the continued mismanagement by SAFA. Soccer is a national sport, in which workers invest their money and emotion. COSATU cannot fold its arms when those elected to manage it have a track record of making our country the laughing stock of Africa and the world.
The decline in our standards has been going on for a long time. There is a real danger that we may only be hosts and spectators in the 2010 World Cup instead of competing against the giants of the world who will assemble on our shores.
Action is needed now. We demand that SAFA publish a development plan to address the weaknesses and stop the decline in quality. To achieve this we call for immediate setting up of technical committees on aspects of soccer, including administration. The technical committees must be constituted by representatives of current and previous players, coaches and technical teams and administrators of all the soccer fraternity. These teams must report to a real Soccer Indaba convened in the next three to four months.
If no serious development plan is forthcoming, COSATU will mobilise its members and the entire working class to attend all meetings of SAFA.
We fully support SAFPU's demand that the current quotas for foreign players must be drastically reduced so that the clubs are forced to work with SAFA to develop and nurture local talent.
7. May Day preparations
The CEC has once again entered into a partnership with the Departments of Labour, and Arts and Culture, and local governments, to ensure a more effective funding of May Day. The CEC agreed that the National Rally will be held in Polokwane in Limpopo this year. Rallies will be held in most other towns across the country.The November CEC agreed with the SACC and TAC that the theme for May Day will be "Each one teach one! Test, Treat and Fight for Life!"
8. Swaziland
The CEC adjourned its session at 13h00 on Tuesday 14 February to join the demonstration organised by the Swaziland Solidarity Network at the Swaziland Consulate to protest the violation of human rights by the Mswati regime. Recently activists of the Pudemo opposition party have been arrested and charged with high treason. It was agreed to take part in pickets of consulates in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban on 7 March and to blockade the border crossings into Swaziland on 12 April.9. Zimbabwe
Recent events in Zimbabwe have confirmed COSATU's analysis of the situation. The economic and social collapse which we predicted is now a reality. Unemployment, hunger, mass emigration and now the electricity crisis all point to a catastrophe.The trade unions are facing new, more serious attacks from the government. Numerous police raids, bogus allegations of corruption and currency offences, and the infiltration of stooges into the unions are all being used to try to destroy the labour movement. There is grave danger that police will plant incriminating material on unionists in order to frame them.
The CEC agreed that COSATU must play an active part in the Zimbabwe Solidarity Campaign.
10. Australia
In 1996, the Australian working class suffered a major setback when conservative John Howard was elected prime minister and began to push through major reversals in workers' rights. Proposed radical changes to the labour laws include:* Abolishing the requirement that employers should consult unions/workers about retrenchments
* Abolishing the unfair dismissal law for employees working in businesses with less than 100 people, which will affect 4 million workers
* Introducing individual contracts and attempting to abolish collective agreements between companies and unions/workers
* Removing the right to a severance package during retrenchments
This is a direct attack on the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), whose strong relationship with COSATU dates back to the struggle against apartheid. ACTU affiliates played outstanding roles in support of South Africa's liberation movement, such as the disinvestment campaign. COSATU strongly supported the election of Sharan Burrow, ACTU President, to her new position as ICFTU President since 2004.
ACTU has launched a massive campaign to mobilise Australian workers and communities and the international community against the proposed labour law changes. The CEC agreed to support the development of a solidarity campaign with Australian unions.
11. WTO meeting in Hong Kong
A detailed report was given of COSATU's significant intervention in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Hong Kong.Like many other progressive trade unions, NGOs and governments from the poor nations, COSATU was disappointed at the outcome. The developed countries once again, through divide-and-rule tactics, bullying, political blackmail, throwing tantrums and other intimidating tactics including threatening walk-outs, managed to frustrate the attempts to make Hong Kong a development round.
The CEC paid tribute to the role played by our government delegation led by Ministers Mandisi Mphahlwa and Thoko Didiza and Deputy Minister Rob Davies. Throughout the week they became a beacon of hope for progressive forces as they led resistance against the powerful interests of the North and rich countries. The broad-based SA delegation became the best example of how to lobby support for progressive positions. This led to unprecedented levels of cooperation between the SA delegation and the international trade union movement, the NGOs and the other progressive governments from the South.
The CEC agreed that the impact of failure to get good agreement will be devastating and immediate for South Africa and the South generally. We face a potential disaster unless we get the nations of the South to mobilise around a new development agenda.
12. Joseph Diale
COSATU is urging the media to help us to discover what happened to Joseph Diale, a SAMWU member who went missing in Durban during the 20th anniversary celebrations at the beginning of December, and has not been seen since. We can provide a photograph and description.
Patrick Craven (Editor, Shopsteward Journal)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets
Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019
Johannesburg, 2000
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24
Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940
E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za