Cosatu backs tyre workers strike 02-08-07

 

COSATU backs CEPPWAWU strike

The Congress of South African Trade Unions declares its total support and solidarity with our affiliate CEPPWAWU, in its strike in the petrol and chemical industries. We will also support any action the workers in the sawmilling and pharmaceuticals sectors take in support of their demands should the negotiations with the employers not lead to an agreement. We urge the employers in all these sectors to follow the example of those in the pulp and paper sectors, who agreed to an 8.5% wage increase.

The demands the workers are making made are entirely reasonable. Inflation is steadily eroding the living standards of all workers, and is worst for the lowest paid who spend a higher proportion of their income on those basic necessities whose prices have been rising fastest.

These are also sectors which have benefited from the economic boom and made huge profits. It is only right that the workers, whose labour has created these profits should now get a share of the increased wealth being created, that economic growth is shared and we start to reduce the unacceptable levels of inequality which blights our society.