General Strike - 18 May 2006

Below is the updated programme of marches and rallies for the Congress of South African Trade Unions' general strike on 18 May 2006. Please phone the designated contact person for local details.

 Messages of support

Here are extracts from statement by COSATU affiliated unions saying why they are supporting the strike:

SACTWU

The largest union in fashion manufacturing called on its 110 000 members to support the call for a national strike on 18 May and we call on the public to show solidarity with some of the lowest paid workers in manufacturing who will demonstrate against job losses on Thursday.

Fashion and design are glamorous but the reality of unemployment and low wages is the very opposite. Over the past three years, more than 62 000 clothing, textile and footwear jobs have been lost as a result mainly of imports from China. Workers eke out a living on less than R100 a day in many parts of the country and yet jobs continue to be lost through the increasing tendency of retailers to import.

We expect many thousands of workers to withdraw their labour as a symbolic action to draw attention to their plight. Workers will take part in marches and demonstrations in all the major cities and will deliver memoranda to large retail houses. We expect large industrial areas to empty when workers clock out on Thursday in support of the strike.

NUMSA

The country's largest metalworkers' union, NUMSA, is preparing to square up in the Eastern Cape with Daimler Chrysler South Africa and leather seat manufacturer Johnson Controls SA, among others, in protest against alleged retrenchments threats of 320 workers and plans to relocate both companies to Germany and North America, respectively.

What has infuriated metalworkers is the way Daimler Chrysler and BMW forced Johnson Controls to cede its export certificate and they themselves took over the shipping of the leather seats to North America and Germany in the name of Johnson Controls in order to cream off profits through Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP) benefits provided by government.

NUMSA in KwaZulu-Natal has singled out Mittal in Newcastle, Bell Equipment in Richards Bay and Daimler Chrysler warehouse in Pinetown, among others, as rallying centres of protest action to demand an end to reported racial practices by management, ill-treatment and sacking of union shop stewards.

It is the most abominable racial practices in Bell Equipment which resulted in shop stewards being dismissed because of a petition and the local chairperson to be suspended when they complained on behalf of workers that white racist supervisors who forced our members to clock out when they respond to natural calls in toilets should be disciplined.

SADTU

SADTU will be participating fully in the one-day strike called by COSATU on Thursday May 18th. The strike is part of the ongoing COSATU campaign to highlight the continuing jobs bloodbath and resulting mass poverty. Four out of ten workers are unemployed. This places a huge burden on those who remain in employment to support - on average - 8 dependents.

As SADTU we will be striking in solidarity with our fellow workers - both employed and unemployed. As educators located in the public service we have also developed a set of demands which address the problems in the education sector. We take the view that total employment in the education sector and conditions of education workers are closely bound up with the wider struggles for educational and social transformation.

Our goal - drawn from the pages of the Freedom Charter - is the achievement of "free and equal quality public education". To achieve this goal - amongst other things - we need adequate staffing levels and well-trained and motivated educators; summed up in the slogan of a recent World Teachers Day as: "quality teachers for quality education."

COSATU North West

COSATU North west members will embark on a legal and protected strike on 18 May to challenge government, employers and other organisations which continue to:

Victimise workers,
Practice racism,
Retrench workers,
Use casualisation
Continue to assault, kill and evict farm workers.

We will also march to the magistrate court to demand that all employers or farmer owners who are reported to police station and no action is taken against the culprit are all released without appearing to court that must came to an end.

The COSATU North West marches will be as follows;

RUSTENBURG: from Olympia Stadium to the municipality, which will be mostly the mine workers from Carletonville, Matlosane and Rustenburg. Memorandums will be delivered to the Minister of Mineral and Energy, the Chamber of Mines, the Department of Labour and employers' associations.

VRYBURG: the march will start from Huhudi Stadium to Pick'n' Pay also employers and Government will receive the memorandum.

MATLOSANA: from the Matlosana Taxi Rank to Shoprite Checkers. Employers and the Department of Labour will receive the memorandum.

BRITS: from the Bus Rank to the Magistrates Court. Employers, the Department of Labour and the MEC of Safety and Security will receive the memorandum.

MAFIKENG: from Montshioa Stadium to the Legislature. Employers, the Department of Labour and the Premier will receive the memorandum.

LICHTENBURG: from Lichtenburg Park to the office of Agri North West. The Agri North West employers, the Department of Labour and the MEC of Agriculture will receive the memorandum.

We are demanding that no worker should be intimidated, victimised, dismissed or harassed for participating to the protected strike.

For further information please phone the COSATU Provincial Secretary, Solly Phetoe on 018 462 2406 or 082 304 4055.

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