COSATU backs Guinea workers 28-02-06

 

COSATU backs Guinea workers

The Congress of South African Trade Unions gives its full support to the National Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG), and the Guinean Workers Trade Union (USTG), representing 80 000 workers, who began a general strike yesterday.

Reports from the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) indicate an overwhelming response from the workers, with little traffic on the streets of the capital, Conakry, as most taxis and minibuses remained at home, while shops and businesses stayed closed and government workers largely deserted offices.

The unions have told IRIN that daily life has become tougher and tougher in past years for the average Guinean. Rice, the staple food for the West African nation's eight million people, almost doubled between January 2004 and November 2005, with the free-market price of a 50 kg bag of rice increasing from 50,000 francs to about 85,000 francs. Today a bag costs the equivalent of R130 - more than half the average monthly salary of a civil servant.

COSATU condemns the threat of Employment Minister, Ibrahima Keira, to take action against government workers who fail to turn up for work without a legitimate reason. We support Louis Mbemba Souma, Secretary-General of the Teachers' Union, who told the media on Monday that "We are determined to carry on this strike. For too long we've been taken for a ride. This time if even it takes us months, we will pursue and get what we demand from this government."

Victory to the workers of Guinea! An Injury to one is an injury to all!