"We hope that these actions will send a clear message to business that we are serious about our demands. The labour market must be transformed in a way that takes account of many years of apartheid oppression and exploitation of workers especially black workers, as well as the struggle for worker rights by millions of workers, some of whom died at the hands of the police with the collaboration of employers. Since the police who committed gross human rights violations are already seeking amnesty, we hope that employers who collaborated with the police and the apartheid regime will also seek amnesty for their evil deeds. We will be approaching the TRC to request that a special hearing be arranged for this purpose," Cosatu said.

Cosatu's Executive Committee meeting on 24 and 25 June has condemned the violence at Amplats mines which led to the killing NUM shaft stewards by supporters of the bogus Mouthpiece union.

"We condemn these acts of violence which seem to be part of a well coordinated strategy directed against members belonging to NUM. We are dismayed at the lack of action by both Amplats management and the SAPS. We believe that firm action by management and SAPS, would have saved the lives lost thus far."

Cosatu said it suspected there may be a hidden hand behind the carnage. "Our initial investigation reveals that there may be a link between this reign of terror and that at the Sebokeng hostels and in the Qumbu/Tsolo areas," the federation said.

"We call on the provincial MEC and the National Safety and Security Minister to take decisive steps to ensure that this violence is brought to a halt."

The Exco sent its condolences to the families of NUM shaft stewards Rudwell Diale and Eric Rixi, the latest victims of the violence perpetrated by Mouthpiece.

Taxi violence

Cosatu has also come out against the ongoing carnage and the maiming of workers, including commuters and taxi drivers, by hit squads "who seem not to discriminate between people they are in dispute with and the innocent commuters and drivers".

"We condemn this violence and appeal to the parties in dispute to find an amicable solution to their dispute through peaceful means."

Cosatu said the violence was the result of the past NP government's failure to regulate the taxi industry. "Accordingly, we welcome the effort by the our democratic government to regulate the industry,"

Cosatu said "We call on the government to use all its might to find, prosecute and impose heavy sentences on the perpetrators of this violence."

The Exco also called on its Northern Transvaal region and locals in Pretoria to intervene and ensure that pressure is put on the taxi association to resolve the matter in the manner that does not put the lives of innocent people at stake. Cosatu sends its condolences to all the families of victims of this senseless violence.

The Exco received a report and an input on the brutal attacks on the West Australian Trade Union Council (ACTU) and its members by the conservative government which came to power in the last round of Australian elections.

Laws passed by this right-wing government include:

Restrictions on the right of entry - union officials are not allowed to visit factories where they have no members. Even in factories where they members, members are required to inform management about any impending visit by a union official. The labour minister also had the right to stop factory visits by union officials, even in cases where permission has been granted.

The introduction of a complicated secret ballot system which will make industrial action impossible.

The establishment of essential service provisions giving the Minister enormous power to take action against unions, and

Control of the manner in which unions utilise their finances. These are but a few of the draconian provisions of the new law which unions internationally believe to be the worst in the industrialised world. This is contained in a study just released by the ICFTU.

ACTU believes that many aspects of these changes will be introduced nationally. The Federal Labour Minister has already indicated that "more reforms" are on the way.

Meanwhile, organised resistance to the law has been extensive. Western Australia has been blockaded for 24 hours. There have also been rolling strikes throughout all sectors. A mass protest rally was held outside parliament and unionists occupied parliament when the Bill was passed, forcing parliamentarians out of the Chamber.

The mood of workers is very militant. Workers are determined to resist for as long it takes. Some workers have occupied land outside parliament and established a "Worker's Embassy" which is staffed 24 hours a day by trade unionists, even though it is in the middle of winter in Australia. Over 2000 people have placed their names on a resistance register vowing to break the law and to go to jail.

Cosatu's Exco sent a message pledging its solidarity with the West Australian workers, who were holding a protest rally on 26 June. Cosatu will be drawing up a list of multinational companies which operate in South Africa and Australia. Pressure will be put on these multinationals to also resist these draconian anti-worker laws.

The Exco mandated Cosatu's National Office Bearers to decide on a date for a picket outside the Australian Embassy in protest against the new laws.

A frenzy of Cosatu affiliate congresses and policy conferences are rapidly setting the stage for the federation's national congress at the World Trade Centre from 16-19 September. The congress theme is "Defend, Consolidate and Advance Social Transformation".

In one week Numsa held its economic policy conference and central committee meeting to develop more detailed policy following the union's congress last year; CWIU held its fifth national congress and Cawu its fifth national congress and tenth anniversary celebrations - all at a Johannesburg hotel.

As The Shopsteward went to press, Ppwawu and Fawu congresses were in progress and Nehawu was in the midst of a national policy conference culminating in the union's tenth anniversary rally on 28 June.

While the worker delegates have been discussing issues specific to their industries, resolutions on the strategic priorities for the country's economy and political alliances have featured prominently.

A common theme has been a rejection of government's macro-economic framework, Gear, and continued support for the tripartite alliance. In addition, delegates are discussing recommendations from Cosatu's September Commission on the future of the unions. An interim report has been distributed to unions to feed into the pre-congress process. The final report, which is expected to be almost 200 pages long, will be released in mid-July. It includes chapters on the "September scenarios" outlining possible future situations in which the federation could find itself; democracy and alliances - a political programme for transformation; reclaiming redistribution - an economic programme for transformation; democracy for delivery - transforming the public service; democracy in the workplace; new workers, new members; the nature of the trade union movement; building Cosatu's engines - restructuring the federation; building women's leadership; and building effective, democratic organisation.

Each of the chapters contains detailed recommendations for discussion and decisions in the federation. The Shopsteward will be producing a Congress Special edition which will include popular versions of the September Commission report as well as Cosatu's secretariat report and other issues on the Cosatu congress agenda. This is scheduled for release at the end of July.

More than 170 worker delegates at Cawu's fifth national congress in Johannesburg in June vowed not to leave construction industry employers alone until small contractors comply with the minimum wage of R1500 a month and a 30% wage increase over two years.

The congress, held under the theme, Organise, Consolidate and Serve for a Living Wage, coincided with the union's tenth anniversary celebrations. Outgoing president Fred Gona called on delegates to chart the way forward with a programme of action to strengthen Cawu. The union would be judged by its ability to deliver and defend workers' interests, he said.

Gona lauded the achievements of the ANC-led government, including the delivery of a democratic constitution for the country, and the establishment of provincial and local government whose task it was to enable central government to deliver on its citizens needs and provide easy access to governance.

However, the transition was not problem free, he said. "It is not enough that we have voted in a people's government; such votes must be translated into providing better lives for all. We still have unacceptable imbalances in economic means. The wealth of this country is still in the hands of the privileged minority and standards of living still favour only a small section of our society," Gona said.

"We are still experiencing a high rate of unemployment and retrenchments. This is despite the existence of Gear, which is supposed to create jobs. "We want to reiterate the fact that the RDP was and still is the only programme that will correct the imbalances of the past. Its implementation must therefore be revisited."

Gona called on workers to strengthen the tripartite alliance; to place socialism firmly on the political agenda; and to mobilise for a resounding ANC victory - including a two-thirds majority - in the 1999 general elections.

This call was reiterated by Cosatu general secretary Mbhazima Shilowa. "This is not an issue for debate, he said. "Where there are problems, we will sit down with the ANC and discuss them."

Shilowa said it was important to acknowledge the successes scored in bringing in democratic governance at national, provincial and local level and in delivering water, electricity and health care.

However, he said the success of the National Democratic Revolution meant more than the right to vote. It also meant democratising the economy and the elimination of exploitation. SACP general secretary Charles Nqakula said, in assessing the past three years in government, it was important to neither underestimate progress nor exaggerate achievements.

He said the political aim of the working class was to bring about socialism. Workers had the power to transform South Africa into a country led by workers themselves, as workers were the only class that could bring about thoroughgoing democracy.

State of organisation

Acknowledging the union's failure to increase its membership, outgoing general secretary Thembinkosi Oliphant said the casualisation of labour had made union recruitment more difficult.

Construction companies were promoting labour sub-contractors. Only 30% of workers employed by construction companies are core employees who enjoy some job security, he said.

These difficulties were exacerbated by an element of ill discipline in the union. In the past, he said, organisers' day-to-day duties included regular visits to sites and workplaces to talk to union members and listen to their problems. However, this practice had largely been discarded. "Organisers nowadays rely only on shopstewards, some of whom are no longer popular with members," he said.

These factors had led to a rapid decline in union membership. At Cawu's 1995 congress, the paid-up membership was 33 000. By the second quarter of 1996, this rose to 40 000. But by June this year, membership had dropped to 35 000.

The solution, according to Oliphant, was 'going back to the basics'. This meant reviving regular members' branch meetings, particularly over weekends. "These meetings give officials the opportunity to be made aware of the problems facing the members. At the same time, they provide education to the members regarding their basic rights as workers," he said.

Gona called for a focused approach to centralised bargaining including taking up demands for a living wage, medical aid, funeral scheme, job grading, affirmative action, health and safety and other benefits and conditions of employment; a clear policy to fight retrenchment; a coherent strategy to engage employers and government on sub-contracting, housing delivery and the building of dams and roads; and industry restructuring.

Congress delegates resolved that the union should look at new areas of organising, including recruiting skilled workers and workers from all racial groups. The union's education department was asked to play a major role in backing up the recruitment drive and union administrators would be trained to take up members' problems. Delegates also lashed out at membership poaching by other Cosatu affiliates.

Gender

Delegates heard that more women were employed in the building sector than ever before, but Oliphant said the union had a long way to go in implementing gender equality in the union. "Our participation in gender forums is still the preserve of a chosen few. No gender structures exist in the union. Much can be done too to address the gender imbalance that exists in the industry," he said. The union should no longer merely pay lip service to women's participation and empowerment, but should look at creative ways to ensure participation. He said the union should look at the possibility of introducing a quota for women at all its constitutional meetings and workshops.

The union resolved to strive for the creation of one national bargaining council for the construction industry and the appointment of organisers for the building, civil engineering and manufacturing sector. The union should hold collective bargaining conferences each year to draw up minimum demands.

The congress resolved that the union should put forward demands on training of workers as a realisable alternative to retrenchments. Where retrenchments were unavoidable, the union would demand severance pay of four weeks for each year of service. The congress supported Cosatu's position on Gear and said any macro-economic policy should be consistent with RDP objectives. Delegates gave their full backing to Cosatu's demands around the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill.

The congress reaffirmed the need to continue the tripartite alliance and supported Cosatu's proposed Programme for the Alliance released late last year.

Delegates agreed that the forthcoming Cosatu congress should give clear guidelines on the role of the federation in relation to its affiliates. The union's new office bearers are: Wellington Madubedube (president), John Rahlagane (first vice president), Patrick Hlengisa (second vice president), George Baloyi (treasurer), Thabo Morale (general secretary) and Elvis Dube (assistant general secretary)

Despite the difficulty of organising construction and building workers, Cawu has come a long way since it was formed ten years ago.

In line with its principle of one union, one industry, Cosatu initiated a project in 1986 to form a union for building and construction workers. This led to the launch of Cawu in Soweto in January 1997, with a membership of about 19 000 workers drawn mainly from Gawu, Gwu, Brick Cawu, Mawu, Umawusa, TGWU and Saawu.

One of the union's first tasks was to unite workers who came from divergent traditions of union organisation. "Soon after the launch there were tensions in the union," said outgoing president Fred Gona. "This emanated from different styles of doing things and political orientation. Coming from a well organised union, former Mawu members were sceptical of the new union, thinking that the service would not be up to scratch." General unions like Saawu, on the other hand, were reluctant to part with their members.

Another sticking point was registration, said outgoing general secretary Thembinkosi Oliphant. "Shopstewards from unions with a strong congress tradition felt that registration meant recognising the legitimacy of the apartheid regime, while members from unions with an emphasis on shopfloor issues saw registration as a strategy."

Like other affiliates, Cawu was launched in the midst of a state of emergency and brutal political repression. "Cawu was more political in the late eighties and early nineties than it is today," says Themba Majola, Cawu's first vice president at the launch. Most Cawu members were staunch Congress supporters and the union's constitution was drawn directly from Sactu.

"Because of the political changes in the country, Cawu now has the opportunity to concentrate on worker issues," he said.

The building and construction industry was fertile ground for union organisation. Workers were treated like slaves and there was a high level of discontent on the shopfloor. As a result, the period from 1987 and 1993 was characterised by wild cat strikes.

"We were not proactive in our dealings with the spontaneous eruption of strikes," said Gona.

"We were managing crisis after crisis. Looking back, I think we have improved a lot. Today we plan before we embark on industrial action and the shopstewards consult us before embarking on industrial action."

Cawu has also improved its gender relations, says Gloria Mkwayi, the union's Southern Transvaal secretary. "Women constitute 5% in the industry, employed mainly in sectors that manufacture ceramic tiles. But they are well represented in the union's constitutional structures," she says. "After the launch, it was difficult for male members, especially those staying at the single sex hostels, to accept female organisers as their equal. This was made more difficult since women were not allowed access to hostels. But I was forced to go to the hostels and sometimes sleep there," Mkwayi said.

But when women helped win victories in negotiations and improved the quality of service, their attitudes towards women comrades changed, she said. According to Oliphant, Cawu had made significant progress in collective bargaining: "To date the average salary in the building and construction industry is R 5,60 per hour and slightly more in cement, stone, manufacturing and ready mix sectors, compared to R2 per hour eight years ago."

Cawu also won the establishment of industrial bargaining councils, Oliphant said. The civil engineering sector has a central bargaining council and Anglo Alpha has company-level bargaining. Oliphant said the union has shifted the mindset of management in the industry from an adversarial approach to labour relations to a more tolerant one.

But membership growth has been less than expected. "We thought in ten years our union would have more than 50 000 new members. We were unrealistic. But we should not lose sight of the nature of the industry. Today you may have 400 workers on a site and you organise them. In six months' time their contract expires and you are left with no members," Oliphant explains.

He said the problem is compounded by unscrupulous managers who use every trick in the book to weaken the union. This ranges from delays in membership verification to protracted negotiations for recognition, and delaying union recognition until the contractor finishes a job.

Developing a dynamic recruitment strategy is a key challenge facing the union today. "In this era of delivery, the potential for membership growth is there, but this depends on how we harness our time and energies to translate that into reality.

"For example, the Maputo corridor in Mpumalanga and the Olympics in the Western Cape means that the government will give tenders to big contractors. This means that many workers are going to be employed," explains Oliphant. He feels this is an opportunity the union should exploit to its advantage.

The following Cawu leaders and staff received certificates of service to honour their contribution and tireless service to the union over the past decade: Violet Thala (membership administrator), Nontsokolo Mohapi (Bloemfontein organiser), Sonti Motiang (Pretoria branch organiser), Japhta Rabothatha (Northern Transvaal regional secretary), David Tshabalala (Johannesburg organiser), Joseph Miya (Natal regional secretary),Thsini Mulondo (Western Cape regional secretary) and Mike Gwatya (Cape Town organiser).

TRADE AND INDUSTRY POLICY

When Numsa discusses trade and industrial policy, it talks from bitter experience. As former Numsa general secretary Enoch Godongwana said at the union's bargaining conference earlier this year, "Our industries are bleeding slowly and it is our members' blood." For example, engineering industry jobs have dropped from 450 000 in 1982 to 250 000 today.

Rapid tariff reductiions, deregulation plans and privatisation have meant that jobs are also under threat in the electrical appliance and telecommunications sector, the oil industry and at Eskom. But the union avoids the trap of narrow protectionism. "We are not arguing for incompetent local industry or protectionism," said Ngwenda, "but that tariff reduction should not result in job losses." At present the speed of tariff reductions is rendering local industries redundant and leading to the speedy closure of companies.

Numsa's congress in September last year rejected 'free market purity' in favour of interventionist policies. "But we do not want the removal of market forces altogether," the union said. "We must guide the market rather than simply conform to it."

"Market forces on their own will not build internationally competitive industries and they will not always work in the national and social economic interest." And the opening up of the economy to the world market had to be balanced against the capacity to improve the productivity of local industry.

The conference further developed this position and called on the government to develop an industry policy that would regulate the market instead of retreating and letting the economy be ruled by market forces. The conference also resolved:

The IDC, as a government institution, should be re-oriented towards labour intensive projects. We will endeavour to seek labour representatives on the IDC to ensure that workers' interests are respected.

There should be a moratorium on further tariff reduction and all trade agreements need to be reviewed as they are impacting negatively on local conditions. There needs to be a transparent process around the signing and implementation of any agreement.

Cluster studies should be needs-driven and linked to RDP initiatives, should identify key industries which can sustain the local economy and a strategy should be developed for weaker industries.

We need intensive research to investigate the impact of foreign policy as it impacts negatively on trade agreements.

The government should remain a non-signatory to the WTO's Procurement Policy so as to avoid parastatals eg. Eskom, Telkom, purchasing equipment abroad.

The modernisation of industry through the introduction of hi-technology should be balanced with labour intensive programmes to create jobs and develop skills. The Board of Trade and Tariffs (BTT) needs to be restructured to ensure effective monitoring of the dumping of goods into our economy and particularly the regulation of the prices of goods. Numsa, through Cosatu, should develop clear strategies and ensure effective representation at Nedlac's Trade and Industry Chamber. Public Works Programmes need to be sustained but also should promote job creation, skills development and should involve communities.

Fiscal policy

The conference reiterated its rejection of Gear as worker unfriendly, restrictive and anti-RDP. It called on Cosatu and other organs of civil society to approach government to express their dissatisfaction about Gear. If this fails, Cosatu should find creative ways of engagement, including mass mobilisation around specific areas to force government to move from its restrictive fiscal approach to a redistributive and caring fiscal policy.

"We reject the obsession around the deficit and the strategy to service it, because it places serious constraints on the development of communities and the delivery of basic needs," the union said.

Numsa also called on the government to:

1. review the foreign debt incurred by the apartheid government;
2. look critically at internal debt repayment in terms of the period, interest rate, and re-evaluate those that destroy underprivileged communities.
3. investigate other sources of borrowing that would not lead to an escalation of interest and
4. explore creating its own institutions of borrowing.

   The union noted the importance of monetary policy as an instrument to drive economic policies and delivery of social services. It rejected Gear's provisions which advance high interest rates and a one-sided approach to reducing inflation; and perpetuate the mythical notion that the lack of investment in South Africa is the result of non-saving. The union demanded the democratisation of the Reserve Bank in favour of control by elected representatives.

   On labour market policy, the union rejected government and business proposals which would lead to the lowering of labour standards and job losses. Labour market policy should instead close the apartheid wage gap; train and develop the workforce and, through Nedlac, guide the impact of Public Works Programmes to ensure training in communities and job creation

   .

   Privatisation

   Delegates rejected any ideologically driven privatisation meant to disempower government and reduce the role of the state in the economy. They called on government to "carefully look at relinquishing ownership of state assets on a case by case basis without abdicating its responsibility to deliver services to communities". Key assets for the provision of social services, including land, water, electricity, health, education and transport should not be privatised.

   Other resolutions

   Employers should consult unions six months prior to outsourcing; outsourcing should not downgrade conditions of employment of workers in the same industry and there should be full disclosure of information.

   Labour brokers should be regulated and workers in these sectors should enjoy full rights and benefits of full-time workers. Wages should be separated from productivity incentives.

   All workers should enjoy access to paid training and companies should pay a 4% training levy.

   Land reform should promote small and medium size farmers.

   Farmworkers must be allowed farming and grazing rights.

   A conference on rural development involving unions and non-governmental organisations should be held to look at land reform and tourism, reforming Trust land, the role of the Land Bank in carrying out effective transformation and changes to the constitution such as the property clause.

   Government should provide incentives to SMMEs but not at the expense of workers

   SMMEs should be used as a tool for collective empowerment instead of self-enrichment.

   
   

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   CWIU WON'T ABANDON THE ALLIANCE

   Delegates at CWIU's 5th national congress have reaffirmed the union's commitment to strengthening the Tripartite Alliance and building working class leadership of the struggle for transformation.

   The congress made no bones about the union's socialist vision with its theme, Socialism is the Answer for the New World Order.

   In his presidential address to the congress, Welile Nolingo said the democratic breakthrough and the new political dispensation created fertile ground for the advance of the struggle for socialism.

   "The challenge facing the federation is to rally the unity of all progressive forces into a formidable block with the political authority of the ANC and the working class movement, the SACP," he said.

   Attempts to isolate the working class from its natural support base would be suicidal, Nolingo warned.

   This view was reiterated by ANC MP and SACP chairperson Blade Nzimande. "The working class, particularly organised workers, should not be tempted into a narrow workerist route of wanting to form a workers' party based on trade unions. Such a route can only play into the hands of our enemy and separate organised workers from the rest of the working class and the mass of our people."

   He said strategies and programmes had to be developed "that do not merely subsume the working class into the broad democratic movement such that it is not able to assert the political aspirations of the working class during this period that requires inter-class alliances".

   The Alliance remained an important weapon in the struggle to consolidate the transition to democracy in order to lay the basis for a transition to socialism.

   "The argument that workers should abandon the ANC and the Alliance is essentially to say the ANC belongs to forces other than the working class and its allies.

   "If we feel unhappy about how the ANC is doing things, let us be there as part of this ANC to correct those things," Nzimande said.

   The congress political policy resolution, noting subjective and objective weaknesses within the Alliance partners, particularly the ANC, resolved to take full responsibility for building the component organs of the Alliance through strengthening grassroots structures of the ANC and MDM formations.

   Delegates agreed that a programme of action on the RDP should be developed in the context of building the Alliance and a broad popular movement for transformation.

   The Alliance should jointly formulate policy and should enter into an accord. Any policy changes should be discussed in the Alliance. CWIU also resolved to:

   • Build the organisational authority of the ANC at all three tiers of government and ensure that ministers and other representatives remain answerable to the Alliance and the masses;
   • Campaign for the ANC to ensure it wins the 1999 elections;
   • Build and provide leadership in community structures, support community campaigns, and that Cosatu locals should liaise with communities on issues, including the campaign against crime and violence.

   Economic policy

   Like other Cosatu affiliates, CWIU rejected Gear as an economic strategy. It resolved to engage the Alliance and campaign for an economic strategy that will implement RDP objectives to ensure delivery. The union called on every member of Cosatu unions to contribute R1 per year to an RDP fund for a period of three years.

   The union also resolved to:
   

   • Campaign against mindless privatisation and the empowerment of an elite at the expense of the majority;
   • Call for low cost delivery of services from the state, promote the transformation of the public service and democratise state-owned companies;
   • Engage in research to strengthen the manufacturing industry;
   • Oppose all forms of EPZs;
   • Reject the establishment of a union investment company and invest its resources in socially useful projects that will lead to a rise in living standards in deprived communities;
   • Fight for control of provident funds;
   • Work towards a merger with fellow Cosatu affiliate Ppwawu;
   • Actively promote the participation of women workers and develop women leadership in the union, Cosatu and the broader society; Work through Cosatu towards the formation of a national women's movement which will take up issues affecting working class women.

   The congress elected the following office bearers: Welile Nolingo (president), Joyce Pekane (first vice president), Joseph Thee (second vice president), Ronald Mofokeng (treasurer), Muzi Buthelezi (general secretary), Nelson Mthombeni (assistant general secretary).

   
   

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   SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS

   Cosatu has given its full backing to public sector unions Nehawu, Sadtu, Sapsa, Popcru and IPS in their pay dispute with government. The unions have launched a protest campaign, including marches nationally on 25 July. In a statement, Cosatu called on the government to abide by the spirit of the three-year agreement it signed with the public sector unions last year. Deviation by the democratic government from the agreement would set a dangerous precedent for the private sector, the federation said.

   Marking Nehawu's tenth anniversary celebrations, Cosatu paid tribute to Nehawu as one of the most respected worker organisations in South Africa. Formed in 1987 with about 10 000 members, Nehawu today boasts 158 000 members and is the country's fastest growing union. "

   Cosatu salutes this giant of the future," Cosatu said. "We commend Nehawu for the string of victories it has secured in the past ten years to improve the wages and conditions of employment of public sector workers. "The strides Nehawu has made in closing the apartheid wage gap serves as a motivation to all South African workers. The wage gap in the public sector today stands at 20:1, against 100:1 in some sectors."

   The federation also paid tribute to the union's leaders like Yure Mjokolo, Vuyani Mabaxa, Victoria Mazibuko, and many others who sacrificed with their lives to secure these victories.

   "We salute those thousands of workers who were dismissed and victimized and who have to endure the worst form of brutality at the hands of the apartheid police," Cosatu said.

   
   

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   In defence of quality public education

   In August, Sadtu will be launching a campaign to defend quality public education. Mass meetings, marches and pickets will be held across the country. The union has already submitted a memorandum of 10 demands to the president, Minister of Finance, and Minister of Education.

   The union believes strongly that government should make the necessary funds available to ensure that a quality public education system is created. Government should also ensure that a progressive legal framework is implemented. With the necessary resources in place Sadtu is prepared to throw its full weight behind government's campaign to create a culture of learning and teaching in schools.

   The education budget

   The budget has a significant impact on what can and can not be done to transform education. Sadtu believes that money spent on education must be viewed as a long-term investment in the country's future. However, the union fears that government is starting to adopt the narrow and short-sighted view that education is a cost. In the last year, the education budget has risen by only 1.2% - a figure way below the inflation rate.

   In Sadtu's view, the budget is a "maintenance" rather than a "transformation" budget. This has serious implications in that past inequalities will be entrenched.

   Money is needed to deal with the apartheid backlogs in education and to ensure that the growing pupil population is absorbed into schools. Further, the education department requires a major allocation of funds for its various education programmes. In 1998, the new curriculum will be introduced in schools. New textbooks have to be produced and teachers have to be trained. The South African Schools' Act has to be implemented. Democratic school governing bodies have to be elected in each and every school and their capacity has to be built.

   Another problem with the budget is that the state is starting to adopt a policy of "fiscal federalism". In line with the new constitution, the lion's share of the budget is being allocated to the provinces. This allows them to take decisions which are not in line with national decisions.

   This means that equity and redress are under threat. Savings made in one province are not transferred to more needy provinces but instead become budget cuts. But the problems of federalism go beyond budgetary issues. Federalism affects general policy matters and it is creeping into a number of decisions. The education system is becoming fragmented and this is adversely effecting quality public education.

   Rationalisation of education

   Another area of concern is the education rationalisation plan. Teachers are becoming demoralised by the way this plan is being implemented. Again this impacts adversely on quality public education.

   In principle Sadtu supported the ANC government's policy on the restructuring of education. The union signed a number of agreements on rationalisation in the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC). The union believed that the plan would ensure equity, redress, and the creation of a new non-racial education system.

   The rationalisation process was to attain equity in the funding of education on a provincial level. It was proposed that some provinces would lose teachers and others would gain them. However, it was agreed that the total number of teachers would not be reduced i.e. teachers would not be retrenched.

   Teachers declared "in excess" in one school would be redeployed to under-resourced schools. To guide this process, teacher:pupil ratios were set at 40:1 in primary schools and 35:1 in secondary schools. Voluntary severance packages (VSPs) were offered to educators if they wished to leave the service. The posts of these teachers were to be transferred to needy schools. Linked to this process was the issue of teacher upgrading and retraining.

   However, rationalisation has not been implemented according to the ELRC principles. Government has encouraged teachers to take VSPs, but it has not transferred the posts. The union sees this trend as "retrenchment through the backdoor". Overcrowding in schools therefore remains rampant.

   Over and above this, the forces against transformation have started to mobilise. A number of former model C schools, led by Grove Primary in the Western Cape, have taken government to the High Court to reject the ELRC resolutions that stipulate that they must employ teachers from the redeployment list. They are insisting that they have the legal right to employ whoever they wish to. They have won the case.

   Collective bargaining agreements signed in the ELRC as a whole have been fundamentally undermined by the court's ruling. The rationalisation process is being placed in jeopardy. School governing bodies will now legally be able to employ the teachers they wish to. They can employ white teachers and reject black teachers. Sadtu is calling on government to amend the clauses in the South African Schools Act that give governing bodies the right to employ teachers. The provincial departments should control this Government must also implement a programme to deracialise teaching staff.

   The final battle that the union is fighting is over class sizes and work loads. The problem with teacher: pupil ratios was that they were implemented in a simple mathematical way. The number of pupils was divided by the number of teachers (including those in administrative posts without classes) and then teachers were declared "in excess". Actual class sizes therefore remained very high. Sadtu has been calling for the principle of class sizes and work loads to be included as additional criteria to the teacher:pupil ratios. The union believes that small class sizes are critical to the success of the new curriculum.

   School governance

   The South African Schools Act was implemented at the beginning of 1997. It called for the democratisation of schools through the formation of democratically elected school governing bodies. These were to consist of all education stakeholders - parents, teachers, pupils and members of the community.

   Although Sadtu has supported the major principles of the Act, there have been problems with its implementation. Different regulations have been adopted in different provinces and different dates have been set for the election of governing bodies. Not enough resources have been allocated to ensure that the capacity of new governing bodies is built. Sadtu is calling on the state to make the necessary resources available.

   Curriculum

   The transformation of the curriculum is essential to the transformation of education. The content and the methods used in our education system must be changed. Sadtu believes that both the process of curriculum development and the final product are essential.

   The union is particularly concerned at the lack of participation of teachers in the curriculum's formulation. If teachers are not involved they may ultimately reject this new system. A massive in-service training programme for teachers must be initiated to ensure that teachers are prepared.

   If the government is prepared to provide the resources and implement a progressive legal framework, Sadtu will commit its membership to creating a culture of learning and teaching in schools. The union believes strongly that all stakeholders - including government, parents, teachers, pupils and members of the community should take collective responsibility for education. - Kate Skinner, Sadtu national media officer

   Sadtu's top ten demands

   • That there should be a transformation rather than a maintenance education budget;

   • That the Constitutional clause which gives education competency to provinces should be amended;

   • That the budgetary allocations to provinces should involve decision-making which is in line with national decisions and priorities;

   • That there should be a minimum level of funding for all schools in order to cater for their basic infrastructure and resources;

   • That a special education lekgotla on education funding and financing be convened as soon as possible;

   • That the rationalisation agreement, as encapsulated in the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) Resolution No.3, be implemented without delay;

   • That the government adopts Sadtu's policy of workloads and class sizes; That white schools are forced to adopt a quota system to ensure a non-racial teaching staff and pupil component

   • That the national education department formulate clear deadlines for the election and formation of school governing bodies; and

   • That Sadtu be included as a major role player in curriculum development. (If teachers are not included as an intricate part of the curriculum process they will reject outcomes-based education!)

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   NEDLAC SUMMIT

   WHAT COSATU TOLD NEDLAC

   GEAR once again came under fire when Cosatu president John Gomomo spoke at the second Nedlac summit on 24 May. Here is the full text of his speech, presented on behalf of Cosatu, Nactu and Fedusa

   Two years ago, we came together to launch Nedlac. We committed ourselves to utilise this institution to promote Growth, Equity and Participation on behalf of workers such as Jabu Xulu and Cynthia Gumede. Through it we would ensure the effective participation of civil society in decision making on a range of issues.

   As Labour we never saw Nedlac as a replacement for parliament as some argue. Nor does it take away the right of government to govern as one minister would want the country to believe. Instead it provides a platform for the governed to engage with the government directly, and for the government to explain its policies and to justify them.

   The alternative as we have said very often, "is for the new democracy to flounder on the rocks of continual strife and conflict over all matters of production and distribution". Approached correctly, Nedlac can and has in most cases played a positive and empowering role to parliament and the government.

   A strategic agenda

   The last summit resolved to identify priority policy areas and to develop a broad framework for their implementation. Progress has been made on a number of process issues in terms of the effective functioning of meetings, and of the formal Nedlac processes. We would be less than frank if we were to acknowledge that any progress has been made in forging a common strategic agenda, and a common view of how to tackle our country's major challenges.

   Our input today must be located within the needs of workers and the broader working class. The question that workers are asking is whether Nedlac's role is only to deal with process issues or whether its role should extend to its real mandate - that of reaching consensus and agreement on socio-economic issues that will alleviate poverty, inequalities in wealth and incomes, create jobs, build houses and provide basic infrastructure. I hope to take back answers to workers in this regard.

   At the last summit, the Deputy President informed us that the government was still discussing its proposals on macro economic issues. We were promised that once the proposals were ready, they would be made available to the parties at Nedlac. This has not happened.

   Instead we have seen increased reluctance by government to place policy proposals on the table for discussion and as far as is possible to reach agreement in Nedlac. As organised labour we find this totally unacceptable, and we pledge to tackle such ministers, and such an approach to policy. We acknowledge that the exception has been the Minister of Labour, who has been prepared to engage us in discussion on policy matters.

   While we remain committed to Nedlac and pledge to defend the existence of the institution we are disappointed with the conduct of business and government. In fact some of us are fast losing our patience - not with Nedlac, since this would be playing into the agenda of those who want to destroy it - but with the government and employers since they only pay lip service to Nedlac but (elements) would be very happy if we walked out. In fact they would prefer it but have no guts to say so. They do not want an effective Nedlac but a toy telephone.

   Our message to them is that Jabu Xulu and Cynthia Gumede are ready to defend their role in policy formulation. In consultation with the communities and students from as far afield as Uitenhage, Bolobedi, and KwaMashu, they are ready to take whatever action is required to force business and the government to respect the letter and spirit of the Nedlac Act, and the founding declaration.

   GEAR

   I know that I will be accused of creating straw targets. Let us take GEAR as but one example.

   In spite of the resolution of the last summit as well as the position that was outlined by the Deputy President to place government proposals on the table, which position we fully supported, in practice, what happened? We learnt of the existence of this strategy not through it being placed on the negotiating table, but when it was announced and declared to be non-negotiable in parliament, by the Minister of Finance.

   Business for its part, realising that this was the Growth For All dressed in struggle language, welcomed this approach and called on the government to implement it without delay. Their battle cry became: Government must govern. The same defenders of the right of government to govern would not support that right if government was to implement those policies set out in the RDP around housing, anti-trust policies, labour rights, a national public works programme, and a massive investment in the human potential of our people. It is at such moments that sections of business discover the virtues of consultation and negotiation.

   As Labour we remain opposed to the basic thrust of the GEAR strategy. We reject its approach to fiscal and monetary policies which continue to see major cuts in government spending on social security and basic infrastructure as well as continued rising interest rates. The effect of are to choke the much needed economic growth and employment creation. It will also perpetuate the gap in wealth and incomes between the rich and the poor.

   After almost a year of the unveiling of the famous GEAR, the reverse gear for our society, the promised jobs have not materialised. Only last week, a senior bureaucrat in Trevor Manual's department acknowledged what we have been saying all along; that the projections of GEAR on jobs will not see the light of day. Were it not for the seriousness which we place on job creation, we would be saying to the government: We told you so!

   There is a vast difference between programming a computer to project on jobs and the real thing. Predicting that business will invest in jobs is a far cry from getting them to invest. All they will do is to ask for more. We hope that this will make the government realise that business pays lip service to transformation. They would prefer to have Jabu and Cynthia bear the brunt of transformation alone.

   The irony is that those who told us that this programme was cast in stone as well as those who have been calling for its immediate implementation are now asking us to help them implement it.

   Our response is a simple one: "Se kganang se nthula morwalo. A sisoze si nincede. Qhubekani ngo kwenu. Uma ni funa uku sebenzisana nathi, vumani ukuba i GEAR mayiphume ku buye iRDP". In case you have forgotten, here are the main pillars of the RDP:

   • basic needs of our people

   • rebuilding the economy

   • promoting the rights of workers

   • the eradication of poverty

   • job creation for our people

   If we really want to succeed as a nation, we have to respond to the verdict of the electorate. Unlike business who were cynical of the RDP, dismissing it as a wish list, the masses voted for a better life as contained in the RDP and not GEAR. The same goes for business' Growth For All. It could never have seen the light of day in an election. The past few months have seen speculations about a presidential job summit. We have now heard that the Minister of Labour is looking at October this year as a possible date. We wish him success in his new endeavours.

   Jobs summit

   We are aware that both the Labour Market Commission and GEAR calls for a Presidential Job Summit. We have no in principle problem with a forum which will look at the problems around unemployment and job creation.

   We however wish to place on record that in our view, what drives business and government's approach to the Job Summit is to get us to help with the implementation of GEAR. This is where their proposals for job creation are to be found. We refuse to be co-opted towards the implementation of GEAR.

   What is needed - if we are going to have a successful summit of any kind - is for the parties to agree on a broad framework for the summit, its aims and objectives, terms of reference, etc. By the time a summit is convened, we will have forged consensus on most of the issues underpinning a strategy for employment creation. Rushing into a summit with the parties holding positions which are diametrically opposed to one another is a sure formula for deadlock. This we should avoid.

   We have taken note of the draft declaration placed before us. As Labour we are ready to adopt it. I however need to outline our understanding of the declaration.

   Global realities

   For us "global realities" are not about a set of tired arguments of why we should cut social spending, remove exchange controls, reduce company tax to even lower levels, privatise state assets, retrench public sector workers and deregulate the labour market. For us the global realities include:

   • an unequal access to resources by developing countries
   • constant attempt by some business to shift resources to where wages are low
   • a systematic attempt to discredit, and weaken, the state and the public sector as a provider of social services, as a force for modernising the economy, and a protector of the weak and vulnerable
   • a set of policies followed by the Bretton Woods institutions, which promote an agenda of rising income inequalities, and a lowering of social protection

   South Africa must unite with other developing countries to challenge this pattern of global policies. Our response to these realities must not be to lapse into a fatalism, and merely accept the bitter consequences for humanity of these uncaring policies. We also do not argue for policies founded on closing our borders, and cutting ourselves off from the potential benefit of economic activity across the world.

   We seek, in place of the current form of globalisation, and the subservient attitude of government to the power of capital in the global market, to promote a developmental approach to the integration of economic activity.

   What does this mean in practice?

   It means support for efforts to build an explicit social dimension into trade policies, so that open markets go hand in hand with the promotion of trade union rights in Indonesia, the ratification of the core ILO Conventions in the United States and the elimination of child labour on the Indian sub-continent.
   It means support for efforts to write off third world debt, whose level and repayment terms keeps poor and developing nations from accumulating capital for growth, and resources for social programmes. In our own country, we need to consider the appropriateness of repaying foreign debt that was accumulated to finance the maintenance of racial oppression.
   It means support for efforts by developing countries to implement appropriate policies in the areas of trade tariffs, regulation of capital and financial markets and the role of public sector corporations, which are geared to fostering the building of a strong manufacturing base in their countries, instead of the emphasis of neo-liberal solutions which causes de-industrialisation and the loss of jobs and incomes.
   Above all, the needs of our society to develop the human potential of our people, reduce the wage gap, eliminate inequalities and foster programmes to create jobs for all at a living wage, must be at the very centre of our efforts in the next twelve months. In so far as specific goals for the period ahead is concerned, we propose the following:
   
   • Job creation through areas such as public works and mass housing programmes, job sharing, training the workforce, increasing productivity and land distribution.
   • Redistributive fiscal policies through measures like social spending and tax policies.
   • Breaking the concentration of economic power and promoting small and medium enterprises
   • Improved worker rights - dealing with collective bargaining, strong union rights, investing in training of the workforce, ending the apartheid wage gap and disclosure of information.
   • Industrial democracy, through a range of shopfloor and board mechanisms.
   • Promoting economic development and worker rights internationally.

   Deadlock

   I want to conclude with an issue which is pertinent to Cosatu. This is the issue of the current deadlock on basic conditions of employment. As Cosatu we want to warn both the government and business that the game that they are engaged in will not in itself resolve the dispute. Instead, it leads to the escalation of conflict and may have the effect of undermining industrial relations.

   We reject the assertion by the Minister of Labour and his ministry that what we are engaged in are new negotiations and that the bill is different from the previous ones which we have been negotiating for over a year. In so far as business is concerned, they are free to continue to refer us to last year's positions. If this is what they prefer, we are ready to meet them on the battlefield on 2 June 1997. No amount of litigation or any amount of intimidation will halt the strike. The only thing that may stop it is an agreement on the core issues raised by Cosatu. I hope that the issues that we have raised will be taken into account as we move forward in seeking consensus. I thank you.

   
   

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   GEAR TENSIONS NEED TO BE REMOVED

   GEAR continues to be the cause of tension in Nedlac and beyond and ways need to be found to eliminate the source of this tension, labour minister Tito Mboweni told delegates at the Nedlac Summit. "There continues to be an issue on which we seem to be in continuous or permanent disagreement and which is a cause of many tensions in the Nedlac process and beyond," Mboweni said. "This is the GEAR strategy of the government.

   "The fiercest opposition comes from the trade union movement. It is an issue which spills over again and again into other areas of work and causes unnecessary deadlocks all around the place. "Divisions amongst ourselves on a matter so important to our economy and society seem to be extremely imprudent. It therefore seems to us that a way must be found to eliminate the sources of this tension. "What exactly the mechanism is, is something we must look into seriously and urgently."

   Some within business were determined to give a right-wing interpretation of GEAR for their own purposes, Mboweni added, and this did not help the process.

   Mboweni said Nedlac had given the social partners an opportunity to discuss, negotiate, comment on and add value to the nation's policy debates. In a number of policy areas it had done this successfully. "But in truth, much remains to be done," he said. Mboweni raised three key areas of concern:

   Nedlac's role is to enrich, not supplant, government decision-making. "At the end of the day, government must balance the expressed views of the social partners and community organisations with wider public interests, especially the needs of sections of the population which my be less organised or less articulate in presenting their case," Mboweni said. "Total consensus is obviously the first prize, but sufficient consensus may frequently be good enough."

   The government is concerned to avoid haggling ad infinitum over the details of legislation. "There is sometimes a tendency to treat Nedlac processes as if they were simply industrial bargaining at a higher plain," he said. This reflected the fact that a "mature system of social partnership" had not yet been developed in South Africa. But Rome was not built in a day, he added.

   There is insufficient shared vision between the social partners. "We would like to see a shared vision emerging around a National Social Agreement for Employment and Growth," Mboweni said. "We need to build a common understanding of how to develop our economy, boost its rate of growth and create substantially more jobs than we are currently doing. Building that common vision involves making short-term concessions in order to achieve longer-term goals. It means moving away from positional bargaining. It means providing leadership to our respective constituencies and beyond."

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   JOB CREATION

   MISSED OPPORTUNITIES FOR JOB CREATION

   The 1994 elections and the RDP put the cry for jobs at the top of the national agenda. But little progress has been made in solving the country's unemployment crisis

   One of the themes during the April 1994 elections that helped secure an overwhelming victory for the ANC was "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs", Cosatu general secretary Mbhazima Shilowa said in his address to the Cosatu policy conference in May. In Mpumalanga, the Northern Province and the Eastern Cape, which have particularly high levels of unemployment, poverty and lack of basic infrastructure, the ANC won more than 80 percent of the vote.

   "In these areas the majority are women and the youth. Most of them are unemployed," Shilowa said. "They rely on remittances or pensions for survival. Those who are employed are in low-paid jobs. These are the people who gave the ANC the mandate to govern." Support for the ANC was partly due to the movement's history and track record of struggle against apartheid oppression and exploitation and also because of its programme for the reconstruction of society- the RDP.

   "This programme was drafted by the Alliance and supported by all progressive forces in our country. In it we put forward programmes to rebuild the economy, restructure industries and enterprises, develop the human potential of our people, provide infrastructure - particularly in rural areas - and to create sustainable and better paying jobs.

   "For blacks in general and the working class in particular, it was also a vote for a new beginning which promised to transform apartheid policies at all levels - economically and politically. They wanted to put in place a government that would locate the needs of the working class at the centre of those of society."

   Shilowa said the election theme, "Jobs, jobs, jobs", wasn't chosen because it sounded nice. "We chose it because we realised that among the many legacies of apartheid faced by our people was poverty, unemployment, low wages, lack of skills and lack of basic infrastructure."

   Since 1981 there had been virtually no increase in formal sector employment. In the apartheid era, the Nats and big business deliberately scaled down investment in job-creating areas in both the private sector and parastatals. Hundreds of thousands of workers had been retrenched or were facing retrenchment, particularly in manufacturing, agriculture, public utilities, construction and mining.

   "It is therefore disappointing that three years after the election of a democratic government, we have yet to see a sustainable programme for employment creation by both the government and the private sector." As argued in labour's Social Equity document, released last year, South African society is still characterised by vast inequalities in wealth, economic power and incomes.

   "If democracy is to mean anything more than the right to vote every couple of years, we have to face up to the challenges of addressing the glaring inequities in our country," Shilowa said.

   The right-wing South African Foundation's (SAF) Growth for All document released early last year repeated business calls for privatisation, low wages, lifting of exchange controls, the acceleration of trade liberalisation and restrictive fiscal and monetary policies but made no mention of job creation. It even called for a dual labour market system. This was to be made up of first class citizens entitled to labour law protection and second class citizens excluded from such protection and open to massive exploitation.

   While the ANC initially rejected the SAF document, many business proposals were later incorporated into government's controversial macro-economic policy Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear). Labour's own proposals outlined in its document, Social Equity and Job Creation, did not enjoy the same influence among the new government's economic policy makers.

   The Social Equity document outlined six pillars to promote social equity:

   • a programme for job creation
   • redistributive fiscal policies
   • proposals to break up economic concentration
   • measures to promote worker rights
   • a plan to build industrial democracy
   • steps to promote equity and economic development globally
   • The document elaborated eleven measures to create jobs: public works and mass housing programmes
   • modernising our industrial base
   • "job sharing" arrangements
   • pragmatic trade and tariff policies
   • expanding domestic demand and local purchasing policies
   • training and retraining the workforce
   • productivity increases in the economy
   • creating jobs in labour intensive processes
   • stopping retrenchments in the economy
   • a programme of land reforms
   • the stimulation of economic activity

   "We put these proposals not to score points against anyone or for the sake of public debates," said Shilowa. "We put them because we are convinced that this programme can succeed in creating sustainable and better paying jobs, improve the economic position of women and youth, improve the industrial base, train more workers and help build infrastructure, particularly in the rural areas.

   "As Cosatu we are concerned about the plight of the majority of South Africans particularly the poor, the underpaid, the unemployed, those who are homeless as well as those whose basic needs and requirements are not satisfied by the economy.

   "Unlike business who have not committed themselves to do anything for the needy, except to ask for a 'climate conducive to investment', we put proposals which are aimed at our members as well the broader society. However, unlike business, we do not subscribe to a notion that the poor alone must bear the cost of reconstruction." Shilowa said that to date there had been no official response from the ANC or government to labour's Social Equity document.

   Given the ANC's rejection of the Growth for All strategy, it was therefore surprising to see the government produce Gear, a similar document, but differently packaged under a new name. In presenting Gear to parliament, finance minister Trevor Manual said: "The major challenge facing our country is the creation of jobs. I stand here today to place before you a programme of economic reforms which will make a significant difference to the ability of this economy to address this fundamental challenge." But less than a year after these famous words, there is little evidence of a sustainable programme for job creation, Shilowa said. "What we see is the continuation of jobless growth. In fact, the government is becoming 'pessimistic about the success of Gear in creating jobs'."

   An official in the Finance Department was recently quoted as saying that the government was on track to meet all its other commitments in terms of Gear, but was 'less confident' about job creation targets.

   Shilowa said this is exactly what Cosatu warned of in its response to Gear. "We said that Gear would be judged by its impact on the working class and the poor, job creation and job retention, impact on wage levels, workers' rights, provision of infrastructure, role of the state in the productive sector of the economy and labour market policy. "Furthermore we pointed out that conservative models proposed by this strategy would not bring about the envisaged 400 000 new jobs, nor would it deliver the social needs of our people.

   "We predicted that it was more likely to increase the gap between the poor and the rich, and condemn the homeless and jobless to continued extreme levels of poverty." In the absence of a strategy for employment growth from government or business, it was up to Cosatu to put forward proposals to ensure the implementation of policies outlined in the RDP and elaborated in labour's Social Equity document.

   "The challenge we face as a country is to ensure that government policies are based on RDP objectives. Our primary focus must be on job creation," said Shilowa. "We are also challenged with linking job creation to redistributive fiscal policies, breaking up economic concentration in the hands of a few, promoting worker rights, building industrial democracy and promoting global equity and economic development."

   The solution is not to ask domestic workers to accept less than R160 a month in order to create jobs, or to ask the poor to share their poverty wages. "The best way to create jobs is to engage in massive public works programmes for roads, houses, infrastructure etc. We should emphasize a clear and defined role for the state. The state must take responsibility for creating jobs, for building houses, roads, dams and generally developing infrastructure, particularly in rural poor areas. The last budget was a missed opportunity to act as a tool of the government to implement policies which will ensure the redistribution of resources. The government has a direct role to ensure that there is investment in the productive sector rather than arbitrary speculation on the JSE!" Shilowa rapped the labour movement over the knuckles for a lack of progress on campaigns for an overtime ban and a payroll training levy.

   "While most of the proposals on employment creation in the Social Equity document require government and business co-operation, the one on job sharing is within our control," he said.

   is no credible reason why we have made no movement around our demand for a ban on overtime. I know that the reason why you work overtime is because of poor wages, high unemployment and the need to support a number of people. At the same time we should focus on the fact that overtime work takes away potential jobs, and we must therefore be prepared to sacrifice around this issue for the long-term gains. We have also not followed through on our proposal for a payroll levy with a visible campaign to achieve it," he said.

   
   

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   CRITICAL POLICY AREAS

   An effective job creation strategy requires rapid implementation of a range of policy measures. Sam Shilowa outlined some of the priorities at Cosatu's May policy conference.

   Rather than initiating a few radical changes, an employment strategy requires an unambiguous commitment to employment creation within priority areas and the more urgent implementation of policies geared to enhance employment. The first of these areas is economic structure, which requires shifts in:

   • the sectoral composition of output, to favour more labour-intensive activities, and
   • the scale of production, toward smaller and more labour-intensive enterprise.

   The government needs to develop programmes based on maximising employment. Some of the most effective programmes already in place involve interaction with the private sector in developing specific projects, as with the Spatial Development Initiatives and the cluster studies. As a labour movement we need to develop policies to respond to these, particularly where they require the input of Cosatu's regional structures.

   The most labour-intensive sectors with reasonable prospects for growth are:

   • agriculture and related industries, especially food production.
   • the service sector
   • household and economic infrastructure
   • housing

   Central government appears to be concentrating its resources almost exclusively on enhancing competitiveness. Unless carefully managed, this strategy may rebound to the detriment of employment creation.

   Employment in the public sector should be assessed in terms of its overall impact on the labour force. In many black areas, services remain poor, especially in fields related to human resource development such as education and health. Here the search for a smaller, more qualified public service may be inappropriate. As outlined by Samwu, the personnel needs of the public service should be assessed in terms of the commitment to providing basic services to all communities.

   The current strategy of decreasing personnel to cut costs runs contrary to approach we would expect. While it is true that personnel makes up the largest share of spending in key service departments, this is because of their labour-intensive nature. Cost-cutting should start with other recurrent costs and with activities that do not provide core services, rather than targeting personnel first.

   Fiscal policy

   Current fiscal policies foresee a cut in government spending. Continued cuts in funding for economic services will reduce government's power to bring about structural change. Ways must be found to accelerate the redirection of resources to support employment creation, including the restructuring of incentive programmes and improved delivery of services to working class communities.

   Monetary policy

   The current extremely high rate of real interest clearly forms a brake on economic growth and employment generation. To remove the pressure on monetary policy, the employment strategy should:

   • address the structural factors underlying inflation - notably food production and distribution, and other factors affecting the prices of necessities;
   • accelerate the redirection of economic programmes, so that sectors which seem likely to create substantial employment, such as tourism or food production, can access lower-cost funds and other supply-side supports; and
   • define a more pro-active approach to the private financial sector to generate preferential packages for employment-generating projects.

   Policies that affect the cost of living

   Densification

   The cost of providing housing closer to business areas may seem high in the short run. But this should be weighed against the cost of longer commuting distances and the related labour costs.

   • All housing and infrastructure projects, including the development of new industrial and retail sites, should include estimates of commuting costs.
   • Homesteading should be allowed in abandoned buildings in city centres.
   • High-density housing schemes should be encouraged.

   Restraining prices on wage goods

   A strategy of enhancing the production of basic goods, while reducing additional costs from distribution and taxes, could go a long way toward limiting upward pressure on wages.

   • Policies on agricultural production and marketing should aim to minimise prices on essential foods.
   • Tariffs should be minimised on wage goods such as clothing and food.
   • Government should assess retail mark-ups on wage goods and introduce measures to enhance competition, if necessary.
   • Current efforts to reform social security should minimise non-wage costs of employment and reduce the burden on wage earners.

   Human resource development

   The Department of Labour has published a skills-development strategy that aims to enhance access to and assessment of capabilities.

   Improvements in labour-market information forms a critical component. The strategy aims to combine levies on industry with government incentives to encourage training for informal workers and the unemployed. The level of government funding will obviously affect the success of the strategy. As a labour movement we should broadly support this initiative, but also fight to change the envisaged level of the levy.

   Reform of labour market regulation to enhance efficiency

   We have discussed our approach to the reform and regulation of the labour market. We should look at how we can use the LRA to improve negotiations, vastly increasing the peaceful settlement of disputes and reducing the time involved.

   We should help to define clear procedures and criteria for extending sectoral agreements and setting wage determinations in ways that minimise po ssible disemployment effects, without undermining collective bargaining as well as our struggle for a living wage.. Likewise, there is a need to reform social insurance systems to minimise non-wage costs, especially for medical insurance and pensions, and enhance the mobility of labour.

   Potential for synergy

   An effective employment strategy should cover the following areas:
   • the provision of household infrastructure, which should reduce the cost of living and improve social capital while providing important inputs for micro-enterprise, especially home-based production and services;
   • restructuring agriculture, which should both cut food costs and improve employment directly; and
   • the reform and extension of social security.

   Strategic choices

   The proposed employment strategy raised above does not pretend to provide a quick fix to our employment problems. Instead it seeks to coordinate efforts around job creation. For any employment strategy to succeed, it must make some overarching policy choices. Central decisions include:

   • the priority attached to employment creation;
   • the levels of income and security that government programmes should support; and
   • the extent to which government can or should affect ownership and economic power in order to enhance employment and income distribution. An employment strategy must define levels of funding for key programmes. That, in turn, involves agreement on the main direction of the employment strategy and its importance relative to other government aims. If necessary, government must redirect resources from past beneficiaries, even in the face of considerable resistance.
   
   

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   JOB SUMMIT NEEDS ALLIANCE AGREEMENT

   Cosatu says the Job Summit in October will be doomed to failure unless it is underpinned by thorough preparation within the Tripartite Alliance and in Nedlac.

   "We have noted calls by both the Labour Market Commission and in Gear for a Presidential Job Summit," said Mbhazima Shilowa. "We must make it clear that we have no problem with a forum which will look at the problems around unemployment and job creation."

   But Cosatu rejected any approach by business and government to use the Summit to get Cosatu to help with the implementation of Gear. "A Job Summit within the framework of Gear will not solve the country's unemployment crisis. In this regard, the government should be open to other alternatives," Cosatu said in its policy conference declaration.

   Shilowa said that rushing into a summit with the parties holding diametrically opposing positions is a sure formula for deadlock. "This we should avoid." "What is needed is for the Alliance to hold a series of meetings leading to an Alliance Policy Conference on employment creation. This should then be our respective mandates to the Nedlac discussions.

   "By the time a Job Summit under the auspices of Nedlac is convened, we will have forged consensus on most of the issues underpinning a strategy for employment creation." Labour department director general Sipho Pityana said government would present a broad employment strategy at the Summit for Employment and Development later this year. Speaking at the Nedlac Summit commission on employment creation, he said individual government departments had gone far in reforming their policies to improve employment creation. "We hope now to accelerate these efforts and integrate them into a broader employment strategy which we will present to the Jobs Summit," Pityana said.

   "We are sure that our social partners are already beginning to define how they too can contribute as far as possible to more rapid employment growth. Only our joint efforts can achieve this goal, which forms a key foundation in our social and economic progress."

   
   

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   THE LABOUR MARKET AND JOB CREATION

   Cosatu assistant general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has lashed out at business attempts to blame workers or so-called labour market flexibility for high unemployment.
   

   "Business seeks to shift the blame for high unemployment to workers by employing transparent arguments such as the labour elite thesis," he told delegates at Cosatu's policy conference in May. But evidence on the conditions of the working poor dismissed this thesis.
   

   A significant number of people who have formal jobs fall within the category of the poor, Vavi said. Nearly half of the poorest 53% of the population are wage earners and up to 63% of the poor's income comes from wages.
   

   Vavi said poverty in South Africa could not be addressed through employment alone. "Employment and job creation has to be linked to a deliberate strategy to pay workers a living wage in order to address the problem of the working poor.
   

   "Workers and pensioners are the only social security net for the unemployed. They pay for food, clothes, rent, services, and other needs of the unemployed.
   

   "No amount of propaganda from those who have free access to the media will change the fact that South African workers are being paid poverty wages."
   

   The notion that the South African labour market is very rigid is another oft repeated lie, Vavi said. "Decoded this means that workers are highly protected and unions are too powerful. Repeated calls are made to the ANC and the government to confront labour head on. Hence the call for a deregulated labour market which will allow employers to basically hire and fire workers without a second thought.
   

   "For many years, and in particular since business has been feeling confident after their string of victories at the socio-economic policy level, they have targeted the issue of labour market flexibility as a political football.
   

   "These liars blame the unemployment problem on this so-called rigidity of the labour market."
   

   Vavi said it was regrettable that notions of labour market flexibility had seeped through government thinking, as in Gear. "However, government calls for a regulated flexibility as opposed to the call by the ideologues of the free market system for an unfettered flexibility of the labour market."

   Big business arguments for a two-tier labour market amounted to the retention of apartheid in a different form. "Ironically it is the captains of industry who consciously and deliberately want to create a 'labour elite' through creating a two-tier labour market. They then hope to recruit this elite into their programme of creating a mythical class peace," Vavi said.
   

   Studies by the ILO, Labour Market Commission (LMC) and Department of Labour helped debunk the notion of labour market rigidity. The ILO and the LMC agreed on the need for protection of vulnerable workers. Deregulation amounted to rolling back labour standards and a race to the bottom end of the labour market.
   

   The issue of variation in the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill negotiations is linked to this debate on labour market flexibility.
   

   Business wants a system of variation in the Act which would allow rights to be varied down. "They want to make it very easy for employers to wipe out every right in the Act and reduce the Act to an empty shell," Vavi said. Too much flexibility amounted to a denial of workers' rights. "The labour market is already too flexible in relation to wages and employment." Vavi said Gear had a direct impact on labour market policy, including:
   

   • a 3% deficit target in the next five years which will lead to major budget cuts on social spending;
   • restrictive monetary policy to counter inflation including a tariff reduction programme which is already creating havoc and massive retrenchments;
   • restrictive financial policy which includes a programme to remove exchange control which will increase the mobility of financial capital;
   • labour market flexibility with less regulation by government;
   • wage moderation and linking wage increments to productivity;
   • human resource development.

   Cosatu's warnings following Gear's announcement have today become a reality. A government bureaucrat recently conceded that government would not meet even its conservative employment creation target. Instead of job creation, there are massive job losses, Vavi said.

   "Gear has already failed the test Cosatu set for macro-economic policy - job creation, removing apartheid inequalities and wealth redistribution."

   
   

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   A GOVERNMENT VIEW

   Department of Labour director general Sipho Pityana looks at strategies to create and promote employment

   In the past two years, despite the upswing in the economy, the formal sector has not created enough jobs to absorb the growth in the labour force. We must substantially intensify our efforts to create productive employment opportunities for all.
   

   Employment is important, principally, as a source of income. In South Africa, income distribution ranks among the most unequal in the world. High levels of unemployment and underemployment clearly contribute to the problem. The poorest two thirds of the population receive only about a third of the national income. Creating employment is the most sustainable way to improve income distribution in the long run.
   

   But we should not lose sight of what employment creation can leave out. A strategy that aims simply to create jobs, any jobs, would not necessarily provide acceptable conditions of work, more equal economic power or substantially reduced inequality. It could leave our people as mere suppliers of cheap labour - hewers of wood and drawers of water. They could still have little or no say in key economic decisions, and only slightly higher incomes.
   

   Indeed, the available evidence suggests that cutting wages overall could worsen income distribution. Even the very poorest households receive about half of their income from productive employment, either directly or through remittances. Given low elasticity of demand for unskilled labour, cutting pay will ultimately reduce the total income of the poor in general. We have to focus on increasing demand for labour in other ways.
   

   We do not think the wage structure in South Africa is adequate for employment creation. Above all, the pay at the top, for skilled labour, appears relatively high. South Africa ranks amongst the countries with the very highest gaps in pay for skilled and elementary labour.
   

   To ensure that employment creation contributes as much as possible to social progress, we have to take into account the differences between the various segments of the labour market. Different sectors diverge in pay and conditions of work, technology, legal framework and worker organisation. Discriminatory arrangements pushed black people, and particularly black women, into the worst forms of employment.
   

   To illustrate, consider the conditions of an auto worker, a paid domestic worker and a farming household in a former homeland area.

   • In the auto industry, workers have built strong unions in a sector with internationally competitive technologies. The law protects them against abusive supervisors and unsafe conditions. Pay starts at around R2000 a month. But only about 87000 people work in this sector - about one percent of all employees.
   • In contrast, almost one in seven Africans, and one in three African women in regular employment is a domestic worker. The major labour laws only extended to them in the past few years. Domestic workers cannot easily organise to protect their rights or negotiate. Incomes remain low - from a few hundred to a thousand rand a month.
   • The poorest group in the country are probably self-employed rural women - at least three million people. Their incomes typically come to around R500 a month. Often their hard labour is not even counted as employment. As a result, they do not enjoy legal protection as workers. Because they do not have basic amenities like electricity and piped water, they must spend endless hours on housework.

   These examples point to the need to consider carefully how different policies will impact on different groups of workers. A strategy that functions well in formal manufacturing could have little or mostly negative effects on the self-employed or less productive sectors.
   

   We have to consider what kind of employment we want to create. This emerges strongly in allocating resources between support for small and medium enterprises and subsidies to large, formal industry. The former is likely to reach more people sooner, but will increase incomes only to a limited extent. The latter provides far fewer, but more stable and better paid jobs.

   The causes of joblessness

   The extremely unequal distribution of assets limits the ability of the vast majority to create their own employment. Estimates suggest that the richest 15% of the population owns over 90% of the national wealth. Virtually all studies agree that the concentration of assets in large-scale, internationally competitive manufacturing, mining and services will not create enough jobs for our people in the foreseeable future.
   

   Another factor affecting employment creation is the decline in mining and agricultural employment. These sectors have shed 20-25% of total formal employment in the past 15 years. But the causes of falling employment differ between them.
   

   In mining, the roots of declining employment lie in the ageing of the industry. This decline may have been compounded by structures of ownership that raise the rate of return required to stay in business and by the neglect of small mines. The impact has been aggravated by the lack of well-defined strategies for reducing the effects of downsizing on workers, communities and related industries.
   

   In agriculture, the causes of downsizing are harder to define. Government policies fostered capital intensity through the late 80s. Thereafter, labour shedding has resulted from a perverse response to changes in the labour regime. We have yet to develop a labour relations system in agriculture that rests, not on poorly paid and unskilled labour, but on stable, well-trained and productive relationships.
   

   Half of all agricultural employment is on small-scale farms in the former homelands. The Departments of Agriculture and Lands have prioritised support for small-scale agriculture, which should help expand employment in the longer run.

   The public sector

   In the early 80s, the commercialisation of the parastatals signalled an increasing focus on efficiency in meeting national needs, rather than protecting jobs for a minority. Massive job losses resulted, accounting for much of the stagnation in formal employment in the 1980s. A similar change in the national civil service could lead to substantial downsizing in the next few years.
   

   Clearly, the public sector cannot provide unsustainable jobs. Its main role in any employment strategy must be to support and stimulate employment creation in the private sector. But a strong employment strategy requires that, as far as possible, all employers try to achieve efficiency without losing jobs.
   

   A further cause of stagnation is the way in which past government policies fostered capital-intensive sectors at the cost of labour-intensive sectors.
   
   

   The value chains associated with agriculture, a variety of services including tourism, and construction, seem most likely to generate substantial amounts of employment in future. These sectors are relatively labour-intensive. They have significant employment multipliers, both in their direct relationship with other industries and because of their potential for raising productivity in indirect ways. For instance, improving household infrastructure and housing opens the door to a more vigorous expansion of home-based production, trade and services. Since the elections, DTI policies have begun to prioritise employment creation. These policies should go far to support more labour-intensive sectors, in part by strengthening small and micro-enterprise. A particular concern remains the status of services, since no government agency has responsibility for ensuring their development.
   

   Restrictive fiscal and monetary policies also hinder employment growth. These policies have been adopted because of the macro-economic situation inherited by our government. But we must explore ways to ensure that their possibly negative impact on employment creation is limited. Critical steps include rigorously redirecting government spending to ensure the greatest possible investment in our human resources and to support reconstruction of the economy to maximise employment creation. In addition, we must define a developmental role for the financial sector, so that tight monetary policies do not have an unnecessary harsh impact on key sectors - especially the construction of housing and household infrastructure, and SMEs.

   Supply of labour

   Thanks in large part to past apartheid policies, South Africans have a high cost of living and low levels of education and skills. These factors reduce productivity, depressing employment in the long run.
   

   The higher cost of living reflects apartheid residential patterns, relatively high-cost production of wage goods and weak social security. Workers have to spend disproportionate sums on transport. Food, which constitutes at least half of consumption for most South Africans, has had faster inflation than other goods. We hope that the freer marketing structures proposed by the Department of Agriculture will help reduce food prices. We also need to look at the entire value chain in agriculture to find additional measures to enhance efficiency.
   

   Inadequate social security adds to the burden of working people. The poorest groups in our society have relatively high savings rates and set aside, on average, about 10% of their incomes to support family members through remittances.
   

   Poor social services and training systems also undermine labour productivity. The Department of Labour has introduced proposals to establish more appropriate institutional structures to foster a rapid expansion of training. But we should not fool ourselves: improvements in these areas represent a key long-term investment. Like any investment, it cannot be achieved free of charge.
   

   The labour market

   The labour market itself did little to maximise employment. Historically, South Africa had a two-tier labour market. The law provided extremely strong protection for some - mostly white - workers, while it virtually encouraged poor pay and conditions for relatively unskilled African workers. As a rule, workers did not have basic labour rights, their housing often depended on their employers and they did not have unemployment insurance or adequate pensions.
   

   This situation effectively raised the cost of labour in a variety of ways. It aggravated conflict between workers and employers. Adequate support for peaceful collective bargaining and mediation did not exist. Employers could not react flexibly to changing conditions and had little incentive to raise productivity. The labour market did not ensure that people were employed where they could be most productive. Weak training systems for the majority meant that workers could not easily obtain new skills or demonstrate them to potential employers. Discrimination on the basis of race and gender was widespread.
   

   The Department of Labour has begun to introduce measures that seek to provide a more uniform and efficient regulatory framework for all workers. We have put major effort and funding into establishing better conciliation mechanisms, which have begun to establish more modern forms of sectoral bargaining, which should reduce administrative burdens and give workers and employers greater flexibility while providing a sound framework for sectoral development. We have extended core protections to workers previously excluded, meeting the demands of social justice and giving employers and workers an incentive to develop more stable and productive labour relations. Our proposals on employment equity should go far in overcoming the apartheid wage gap and supporting more flexible work organisation.
   

   This is a shortened version of Pityana's paper presented on 24 May at the Nedlac Summit commission on employment creation.

   
   

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   SA MINING GIANTS EXPORTING JOBS

   NUM's Ben Molapo looks at what is behind job cuts in South Africa's mining industry

   South African mining giants JCI, Gold Fields, De Beers and Anglo American Corporation are running down their employees job opportunities in favour of mineral exploration elsewhere in Africa.
   

   JCI, which has embarked on mineral exploration in Mali, Zambia and other African countries, is planning to retrench close to 7 000 workers at Randfontein Estates Gold Mining and Westonaria gold mines at the end of June. The two JCI-owned companies employ more than 26 000 workers. NUM has been at loggerheads with JCI over the planned job cuts. NUM president James Motlatsi warned the company to reconsider its position or "the whole mining industry would be up in flames".
   

   NUM argued that workers had not been given enough time to prepare for the retrenchments and that they had few prospects of other means of survival or alternative employment unless they were retrained. A lack of training in the industry meant that the chance of workers leaving the industry with portable skills are slim. In the light of this, the NUM said JCI's approach of "retrenchments first, solutions later" was highly disturbing.
   

   According to the Leon Commission, set up in 1995 to look into the high mining accident rate, the high level of illiteracy contributes to high mine accident rates. The commission report said 84% of machine operators and general labourers who have an education level below standard 6 are totally or functionally illiterate. "Unless the standard of education of these workers is elevated by further schooling of some sort, their chance of advancement is limited," the report said.
   

   "Employers are under statutory obligation to give workers at least six months notice before embarking on retrenchment," Motlatsi told thousands