Cosatu Gauteng PEC decisions 10-08-07 |
COSATU GAUTENG PEC DECISIONS 7-8 AUGUST 2007
INTRODUCTION
The Congress of South African Trade Unions in Gauteng held a meeting of its Provincial Executive Committee 7-8 August 2007. We have noted that our PEC is held at a time while we are faced with challenges of service deliver and political challenges within the alliance movement.
We held our PEC while commemorating the death of our hero and leader, Nkosi Chief Albert Luthuli.
Most importantly we want to say Aluta to the struggles of our mothers in this Women Month.
Political
We will coordinate political tasks in the province, led by the chairpersons of the affiliates, in the province to respond to the outcome of the Policy Conference of the ANC, as well as to look at the SACP Congress Decision.
The Chris Hani Brigade is to run political schools in different local clusters, in particular in preparation to the ANC Provincial and National Conferences.
The alliance in the province has been working very well. We will continue to strive for unity under the political challenges that are facing the country in terms of job and poverty.
Hands off our leaders
Gauteng COSATU PEC is worried about the insults that have been levelled and directed at our leaders. We are therefore saying the following in defence of our leaders as a matter of principle, in particular in defence of the Alliance leadership and its tradition.
We are not going to reflect on the merits of the incident, but we will do what we should when the alliance is under attack, in particular on the public media.
Our task is to transform our society, as stated in the Freedom Charter and all other documents of this revolutionary alliance within the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution, to better the lives of our people, the workers and the poor in particular. We regard those that ascend to the public gallery to insult our leaders as reactionary, anti-revolutionary who are retard and delay the programme of our transformation.
The media is not our ally and we cannot be reckless in playing play to the gallery when there are challenges within the alliance movement. We have Ekurhuleni 1 & 2 declarations that we use as working and guiding documents to address and to manage our differences.
We, as Cosatu Gauteng want to state that Cde Willy Madisha is our President. We further believe that COSATU and its president are not under attack. The current matter in question is an SACP matter and we believe that the SACP will deal with it politically in its structures.
We are also surprised that those who seem to be attacking the alliance movement forget that at the time of the alleged incident, comrade Willy Madisha was acting in his capacity as an SACP Central Committee (CC) member.
We call on all those who associate and align themselves with the alliance to refrain from media utterances. We call on all alliance partners involved to use the appropriate internal structure to deal with the issues, and refrain from using the press/media as a platform to handle the matter.
Lets allow the judicial process to unfold to its logical conclusion.
Socio-economic
We have noted the growth of demonstrations for service delivery in our province. We should lead communities by participating in the IDP and remember that before we are workers we are members of the communities, and that the Ward Councillors should be actively involved in their wards.
COSATU is to continue to entrench the relationship within SANCO and other community organisations within our society.
Campaigns
1. Job creation and poverty alleviation.
a. Casualisation, and labour brokers - we agreed to plan a march in the province and target companies that are using casual labour.
b. We are planning a Job Creation and Poverty Alleviation conference in the province around September this year.
c. We shall arrange a workshop with DTI on BBBEE legislation and its impact to the majority of our country, in particular workers.
2. University of Johannesburg - Continue the campaign against the closure of the university campus.
3. NAMA negotiations - Support the national office on these struggles.
4. Farm / Domestic workers - Campaign to highlight the challenges facing these sectors.
5. HIV/AIDs - continue with the campaign, and restructure the provincial structure in line with the national one.
6. Work with CCMA and other Bargaining Councils for training of office bearers and shop stewards, to empower workers do be able to handle cases.
7. Integrated Public Transport - We will continue with our campaign to show that Gautrain is not the only solution to the public transport in the province. We shall call on government to extend the different mode of public transport to our townships, improve the current infrastructure of MetroRail, and engage government on the Monorail in the province. We shall also enter into a partnership with Metro-rail on the safety of our communities.
Strikes
We have noted the strikes that have taken place by our affiliates and we will call for an assessment and how best we need to do to advance our founding principles for workers' solidarity. Among the issues we will be looking are:
1. Central Bargaining in all affiliates.
2. The involvement of the government in the strikes.
3. Section 150 of the CCMA.
4. How media respond to our strikes.
5. The participation of workers across colour lines.
6. Minimum service agreement on essential services and bargaining power of the trade unions.
7. Continuation of coordination of Strike (Join Management) Committees after the strike.
8. The role of the police during the strike.
9. Scab labour during the strike.
10. Continue the support of the Merafong communities.
11. Support the "Take Charge" of the Department of Safety and Security in the province.
12. Health and Safety is one of the priority campaign we will be taking against the employers in September / October.
Provincialisation of the health sector and emergency services
Cosatu in the province views this sector as among the most important sectors within the public sector and we will be participating in the transformation as the labour movement for a better service to all. We resolve that:
* There should be a moratorium until all stakeholders are involved.
* Withdraw from all task committees with immediate effect.
Contacts
Mosanku P Tseki Siphiwe Mgcina
Provincial Chairperson Provincial Secretary
082 498 5840 082 465 8336
image001.gif
6K Download