Taking forward the struggle for worker rights, reconstruction and development

By Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary, COSATU

The Christmas holiday was supposed to be a time of joy and celebration. But for most of our people, there was little to celebrate. Millions are unemployed, working for starvation wages or living on inadequate pensions.

For them and their families, the 'festive' season is the worst time of year. When the shops are full of gold jewellery, beautiful clothes, delicious food and exciting toys, but you cannot afford any of them, it makes your poverty all the more painful.

Despite the on-going hardships, workers do have some cause for celebration. COSATU and its affiliates are stronger than ever. The recent local government elections reminded us once more of our hard-won democratic victory. This year, thousands of poor families moved into new homes and gained water and electricity.

Yet we are still a long way from a society where everyone can celebrate at the end of the year. We are engaged in a hard struggle to transform our society to raise our people out of the poverty and despair so many now face.

At 36 per cent, unemployment is intolerable, and still rising. In the last three years, one in ten formal jobs disappeared. Informal and piece work, temporary and part-time employment are creating an army of working poor who are just a little better off than the unemployed. As a result, official data show that inequalities in incomes and wealth have deepened.

The horrific and tragic fire in Lenasia brought to light the dangerous and unhealthy conditions endured by millions of the working poor. Inspections carried out since that fire have exposed that many employers simply flout laws that are supposed to protect workers. The unions fought hard for the right to minimum standards of safety and health.

But these rights are worthless if bosses can ignore them at will or if workers do not claim them.

Workers also suffer from the cancer of racism that still infects South Africa. Police dog attacks on innocent workers, the assaults and murders of farm labourers, and the underlying racial inequality in the distribution of wealth, housing, health care and education - all show how far we must struggle before we can clean racism from our society.

In this issue

Editorial Comment

Letters

Money for all

Congratulations to COSATU

Telkom taken to task

Help Comrade Arafat

Dictatorship and exploitation

Lenasia fire tradegy

Theren must be no islands of exploitation in South Africa.

Bribed to leave union

Telkom Retrenchments

Happy Xmas - you're fired

The NFA and the dispute at Telkom

Numsa welcomes VWSA workers reinstatement

Cholera Crisis

Sector Job Summits

COSATU's 15th Anniversary

COSATU celebrates its 15th anniversary on 2 December 2000 in Johanneburg

Education Campaign

Education- still a long way to go

HIV/ Aids

Expose the Democratic Alliance's election tricks! Don't be misled!

International Report

Belarus: New plot to crush labour rights

President of Saqez Bakers Syndicate, must be released immediately

Morocco violates trade union rights

Metal Workers in protest to Chinise government

Stop forced labour in Burma

Obituary

Constance Eva Mashilo

Undocumented foreign workers are paid pitiful wages and get no benefits, and usually cannot exercise their rights as workers. Because they must accept lower pay, they face hostility from local workers. Yet the real responsibility lies with employers who exploit migrants so as to avoid their legal responsibilities.

On top of these problems we face the scourge of HIV/Aids, with at least four million South Africans already infected and with the numbers growing by 1500 a day. This is a national emergency, demanding immediate, drastic action by the government to provide treatment and support programmes to keep people with HIV healthy and productive.

COSATU and its affiliated unions have had a hard year countering attacks on workers' rights and living standards. But we have achieved some notable successes.

On May 10, nearly four million workers took part in the stayaway to demand quality jobs and an end to poverty. The streets of every city were filled with tens of thousands of protesters. Far more than COSATU's 1.8 million members participated. The mass support proved again that our Federation speaks for the majority of South Africans when it demands more effective economic strategies. As a result of this action, unemployment is now recognised by all as our country's number one enemy.

The decision to hold the Congress of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in South Africa in April was a tribute to COSATU's reputation in the world.

In September, COSATU's Seventh National Congress met, under the slogan: Crush Poverty - Create Quality Jobs! The Congress let us reflect on our achievements, plot a way forward, and demonstrate our unity and strength. It drew up a three-year plan to take forward the battle to transform society.

In particular, we insist there must be progress on job creation and the elimination of poverty. The attempt to weaken the labour laws must be reversed.

As a central demand in our Jobs and Poverty Campaign, COSATU will continue to demand that the LRA require employers to negotiate and strike against retrenchment, in line with international practice. Employers cannot be allowed to dismiss workers without real, meaningful negotiations to look into alternative ways to save jobs.

The Lenasia factory tragedy proved that we need to strengthen, not weaken, the laws that protect workers. If negotiations on this issue with government and employers fail, we are looking to a national stayaway on 28-30 March.

Congress also resolved on a new recruitment campaign to build workers' strength, especially of the most vulnerable - domestic, informal, casual and temporary workers. Only through organisation and solidarity can these workers enjoy the labour rights our new democracy has promised, and protect themselves against the oppressive labour practices left by apartheid.

All of our affiliates are committed to maintaining a high level of service to our members, so that the recruitment campaign translates into real victories in terms of labour rights, pay and working conditions.

It has become increasingly clear that the existing economic strategies will not bring about the rapid growth and development our country and people need. GEAR has failed to ensure robust economic growth or generate employment. Workers cannot support an economic policy that puts profits for the few before jobs and prosperity for the many.

Rather, we must work to establish a development strategy that will bring employment, rising living standards and sustainable growth for our people. The key elements of that strategy are broad skills development, targeted government support for restructuring the economy in ways that create jobs and ensure expansion, a more expansionary fiscal and monetary policy permitting improved government services and investment, and protection for labour rights.

To help define more appropriate policies, COSATU will continue to engage vigorously in NEDLAC and more informal forums - especially the Millennium Labour Council and the Presidential Working Group. We challenge our partners to ensure that in 2001, our discussions lay the foundation for renewed development in our country.

In the coming year, COSATU will participate actively in tripartite sector summits, as agreed by the Presidential Job Summit in 1998. Through these summits, we will seek co-operative measures to protect and retain quality jobs, while defining economic strategies that will bring jobs and prosperity to all our people.

We will base our interventions on broad consultation with our members and communities, as well as expanded policy capacity in our affiliates and our research institute, Naledi. COSATU has already committed huge resources to this critical process. We expect equal commitment from our partners in government and the private sector.

Following the Presidential Job Summit, COSATU established the Job Creation Trust based on donations by members. The trust now has R79 million - and applications worth ten times as much that meet the criteria set by the trust. Still, it is obvious that our funds will not suffice to bring about a decisive change in the unemployment picture. Government must accelerate the allocation of funds from the Umsobomvu Fund and the lottery. Otherwise, these resources are nothing but a tax on our people.

Together with the SACC and SANGOCO, COSATU will take forward the People's Budget Campaign. This campaign will let us develop a national discussion of the budget and define alternatives to the GEAR strategy that will benefit all our people.

An effective development strategy must improve the capacity of the State. Transformation cannot be reduced to selling off the people's assets in order to profit a few entrepreneurs. South Africa must not repeat the mistakes of other countries where privatisation led to job losses, low-quality services for the poor and worse safety records.

Schemes like iGoli 2002 in Johannesburg and Unicity in Cape Town will lead to worse services for the poor and must be halted. COSATU and SAMWU have called for a national conference on local government to find ways to ensure that it meets the needs of the majority.

The Public Service Job Summit must find ways to ensure that the public service serves the people and contributes to overall job creation. The Government's attempt to reduce the Summit to a rationale for job losses makes a mockery of national development aims.

Finally, we demand an end to plans to chop up and weaken state-owned enterprise. If the Government cannot enforce the National Framework Agreement on State-Owned Enterprise, COSATU will feel free to take appropriate action.

The basis for progress in South Africa must be a stronger Tripartite Alliance between COSATU, the ANC and the SACP. The Alliance unites the democratic forces to bring about change at all levels of our society.

We will work hard in the coming year to resolve differences and inefficiencies that have crept into the functioning of the Alliance. To that end, in February we will submit proposals for a joint Programme of Action to our Alliance partners.

In short, in this year we have made great victories, but our country and our movement still faces immense problems, as we look forward to a militant, campaigning New Year.