COSATU leaders say massive job losses throughout the economy amount to a national crisis and have announced plans to launch a campaign for jobs.
The announcement comes in the wake of a job slashing frenzy in the mining industry and threats of further job losses in education and the public service.
The campaign, which will focus on job security and job creation, was decided on at COSATU's February executive meeting. It will oppose unilateral restructuring in both the private and public sector.
Taking into account the job losses across industries, we intend to launch a campaign to save the jobs of those who are employed and at the same time call for quality jobs at a living wage for the unemployed," COSATU said.
The Exco mandated a meeting of union general secretaries on 24 February to develop a detailed programme for the campaign.
According to Central Statistical Services figures, over 116Ê000 formal sector jobs were lost between September 1996 and September 1997.
The NUM reported that about 32 270 workers in the mining industry were retrenched last year alone. In the first 26 days of January, another 13 757 jobs - an average of 529 a day - were destroyed.
COSATU said retrenchments have hit most industries, including auto, food and clothing and textiles.
"We cannot allow a situation where the captains of industry are talking about employment creation while in the same breath they are retrenching tens of thousands through unilateral restructuring" said COSATU general secretary Mbhazima Shilowa.
"We condemn moves by many companies to resort to compulsory retrenchments as soon as they hit a crisis, whereas there are alternatives and more humane strategies for restructuring industries that can be looked at."
The job cuts will have a devastating social impact. The vast majority of those retrenched come from poor communities where unemployment is high. Research shows that each black worker supports up to 24 people. Widespread retrenchments threaten to leave tens of thousands with no means of survival.
"This has a major impact on communities, the unemployed, young job seekers, the economy and worst of all, it aggravates the levels of crime," COSATU said.
The NUM and COSATU accuse mine bosses of using the gold price crisis to implement unilateral restructuring aimed at shedding jobs and undermining union organisation.
"We believe that the crisis within the mining industry is an orchestrated one", COSATU said. "The agenda of the mining houses is designed to bash unions, weaken them by retrenching workers and re-employ them as contract workers in order to advance the business policy of labour market deregulation."
COSATU points out that forward selling means that, even when the gold price drops, the mining houses are still making profits.
"The crisis as far as COSATU is concerned has been exaggerated. It is politically motivated to discredit, sabotage and undermine the ANC government and the Alliance."
The federation gave its full backing to NUM calls for a moratorium on retrenchments in the run-up to a Gold Summit on 26 and 27 February. COSATU will send a high-powered delegation to the Summit, led by COSATU president John Gomomo.
COSATU also backed the NUM's application in NEDLAC for protest action in terms of the Labour Relations Act.
COSATU and the NUM have called on government to play a more active role in the mining industry since mine bosses were driven solely by the need to maximise profits and showed little concern for the disastrous social impact of large-scale job losses.
COSATU's Exco backed NUM calls for:
COSATU welcomed Minerals Green Paper proposals that mining companies involved in down-scaling and mine closures should notify the government of retrenchments which exceed 20% of the workforce in any 12-month period.
While COSATU plans to immediately take up job cuts with private sector representatives, the federation is concerned that the Presidential Jobs Summit later this year should not be delayed.
COSATU is in the process of developing its own positions and will hold a Special Executive Committee meeting on 10 March to discuss the matter. J
WORKER NEWS IN BRIEFPublic service delivery conferenceImproving service delivery by the public sector will be the focus of a COSATU conference on 18 and 19 March. The event will look at the role of communities in service delivery, a code of conduct for public sector workers and how to transform and restructure the public sector. Government departments and ministries involved in service delivery, as well as the ANC, SACP, SANCO and public sector unions not affiliated to COSATU will be invited to attend.
Build socialism nowCOSATU's resolution on building socialism has taken a leap forward with a bilateral between the national leadership of the country's two largest organised socialist forces - COSATU and the SACP - on 12 February. The meeting expressed general satisfaction with the outcome of last year's Tripartite Alliance Summit, COSATU's national congress and the ANC's national conference and discussed how to take forward the socialist project in South Africa in this context. The bilateral also discussed:
The bilateral was held as The Shopsteward went to press. We will give a more detailed report in our March edition.
Solidarity with CubaSouth African trade unions will have a unique opportunity to share ideas and experiences with their Cuban counterparts at a conference of COSATU and the Cuban union federation, CTC. The conference will be held in Johannesburg from 6Ð8 April and will involve the two federations' national office bearers and affiliate delegates. The agenda will include the implications of the economic changes in Cuba and worker rights; foreign investment; privatisation and restructuring of state assets; the impact of technological change; collective bargaining; trade union education and training; the role of women in the workplace, unions and society; occupational health and safety; the role of trade unions in the transition period and within the global economy and unions' relationship with ruling parties.
Miners' Unions Globalise Rio Tinto CampaignMining unions worldwide are to mount an international campaign against the world's biggest mining company, Rio Tinto, notorious for its union-bashing tactics. The campaign was announced following an International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) conference hosted by NUM in Johannesburg. The conference resolved to set up a network of trade unions with membership in Rio Tinto mines and plants and to launch an action programme to pressurise Rio Tinto to respect basic human and trade union rights. The network plans to draw into the programme other international trade union bodies, community groups, environmentalists, churches and other progressive organisations. A major international event is planned for early March to kick start the campaign. Details of the plan are being kept under wraps at this stage. Among the 45 unionists from 14 countries represented at the conference were NUM delegates from Rio Tinto's South African operations in Richards Bay and Phalaborwa. Conference delegates accused Rio Tinto of undermining workers' basic right to organise and bargain collectively. They painted a picture of the rogue multi-national's trail of destruction, its abuse of worker rights and aggressive anti-social policies in its efforts to maximise profits at any cost. Speaking from his own members' bitter experiences, Australian mineworkers union leader and ICEM vice president John Maitland called Rio Tinto a "devil of the working class" and said it had targetted organs of workers' defence, their own trade unions. Former Australian prime minister and trade union leader Bob Hawke told of the company's efforts to turn back rights Australian workers won a century ago. Rio Tinto's efforts to smash unions have included enforcing individual contracts for workers. This involves special rates and conditions for non-unionised workers, and in effect, penalising workers who belong to trade unions. ICEM general secretary Vic Thorpe said Rio Tinto was promoting an anti-union agenda as a new management religion. "They are the new evangelists of company totalitarianism at work and in the broader society," he said, adding that Rio Tinto represented a challenge to the trade union movement worldwide. "If we don't stop Rio Tinto now, this cancer will spread throughout the whole multi-national pack."
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SADTU leaders have warned that the retrenchment of teachers will have a devastating effect on public education.
The warning comes amid growing signs that all teachers - and not just temporary teachers - face retrenchment. An estimated 100 000 jobs could be shed in the education sector alone, as part of government's Gear-inspired plans to slim down the public sector.
Since late last year, SADTU has been up in arms over the threatened retrenchment of temporary teachers. This followed a government announcement that provincial education departments were not obliged to employ teachers they could not afford. Since all provinces had overspent their budgets, this meant that over 70 000 temporary teachers' jobs were on the line.
This had the potential to throw education transformation into chaos. In many schools, particularly in informal settlements, almost the entire teaching staff are temporary educators. The department's action would have resulted in these schools reopening with only principals and deputy principals to provide tuition.
SADTU moved swiftly to defend teachers' jobs and education transformation. After meetings deadlocked at the national level, the union held meetings with provincial premiers. The union impressed upon them the urgency of finding more funds for education. SADTU said this was particularly crucial in the light of the need to begin to implement the new outcomes based education system in 1998.
Seven provinces agreed to extend temporary teachers' contracts to allow for further negotiations with unions. However, in the Western Cape, the National Party's Hernus Kriel refused to meet SADTU and instead went ahead with the retrenchment of about 3000 temporary teachers.
While SADTU managed to play for time, the union believes that temporary teacher retrenchments are just the tip of the iceberg. And it now appears that permanent teachers also face job cuts.
What confirmed this was a set of new government proposals on rationalisation released on 16 January 1998. These called for "post provisioning norms" to be set at provincial level and for these norms to comply with budgetary constraints. The new proposals also dropped the principle of teacher redeployment.
"It appears that the state is now prepared to abolish posts rather than transfer them to areas of need," said SADTU general secretary Thulas Nxesi. "This amounts to downsizing in education rather than right-sizing. Rationalisation is therefore no longer on the state agenda - we are now talking education cutbacks.
"What the state must realise now is that this will have a devastating effect on public education."
The new proposals further entrench the provincialisation of education - provincial budgets will now determine the number of educators employed.
Says Nxesi: "This will mean that where provinces have education as a priority, education needs will be attended to. But where provinces do not see education as important, shortcomings will be experienced. These include a lack of adequate resources, higher educator: learner ratios which will translate into overcrowded classrooms and insufficient money to build new schools. It will also lead to great unevenness in the quality of education from province to province."
Nxesi added that the proposals ignored the principles of equity and redress between provinces and within provinces.
Greater provincial powers also threaten centralised bargaining. Now that provincial bargaining chambers can set teacher-pupil ratios, their powers have been significantly enhanced to the detriment of bargaining in the national chamber. SADTU believes this will fragment education transformation.
SADTU is now seeking a mandate from its members on how to respond to the crisis. Teachers forums in February will discuss the threatened retrenchments and budget cuts in the education.
The union points out that since the government is now talking retrenchments, it is legally obliged to disclose information in terms of section 189 of the Labour Relations Act.
SADTU says this information is vital for meaningful negotiations to take place and will pose a number of tough questions to government:
The union says it will pursue debates on these issues in the bargaining chambers and at a political level. SADTU believes that government cannot be allowed to renege on its responsibilities. It says the country needs strong national leadership in education and feels that devolving powers to the provinces will compromise development, equity and redress in education.
The union says government must realise that budget cuts will have disastrous effects on its ability to deliver quality public education.
- Kate Skinner, SADTU media officer
COSATU structures nationwide are moving into top gear in preparation for the federation's nationwide mass recruitment campaign in April.
COSATU deputy general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says the campaign will be the biggest since the massive 1987 living wage campaign.
The recruitment drive, dubbed COSATU's "Autumn Offensive", will target industrial areas and workplaces throughout the country.
The campaign slogan is "The union a spear, COSATU a shield. Join a COSATU union now!" and hopes to make the federation a home for all workers.
The idea for the organising offensive was raised in COSATU's September Commission report on organising new sectors and layers of workers.
COSATU's national congress took the proposal forward with a resolution to launch a massive recruitment drive to reach at least 50% unionisation by COSATU affiliates in all sectors.
In November last year, the COSATU CEC set aside the entire month of April for the campaign. The Recruitment Month will culminate in May Day celebrations.
Vavi said the campaign was a crucial one for COSATU and the country in general. He said building organisation is the bottom line in enabling the federation to achieve its broader transformation objectives.
"The campaign brings to the fore the role of COSATU as a coordinating structure. We can't just be a lame duck federation. We need to pressurise affiliates all the time to ensure the implementation of the federation's programmes," says Vavi.
"WE are all part of a broader family as COSATU and our survival is interdependent. Shop stewards will be used across the board in recruiting, not just for their own unions.
"For example, if NUMSA is strong in an area, it doesn't mean NUMSA shop stewards must just sit on their hands. They must go out to recruit in other sectors. Or if construction is strong in Durban, they must go out to Pinetown and organise clothing workers.
The same applies to affiliate leadership, Vavi said. Some unions won't benefit directly, since they already have a high level of unionisation in their sectors. "But shop stewards and organisers in these unions will be asked to go out and recruit in other sectors."
"Though we have seen phenomenal membership growth in COSATU over the past few years, we are still under-represented if we compare the percentage of COSATU members to the total numbers of employed workers."
A NALEDI survey showed that most COSATU unions have not yet organised 50% of workers in their sectors. The campaign plans to correct this by mobilising resources across the federation to strengthen COSATU affiliates. Particular attention will be given to agriculture, catering and retail, transport, paper and pulp, and construction.
The campaign will seek to make effective use of the LRA's provisions on closed and agency shops, and workplaces where COSATU affiliates can reach the required threshold will be a priority.
"Where we have sufficient numbers and have reached the threshold required for this, it will give us the right to trigger agency and closed shops. This will be part of the recruitment offensive," says Vavi,
Despite exponential membership growth in COSATU's public service unions, the recruitment drive will also target the public service.
Another strategic focus of the campaign will be on white and white collar workers and vulnerable workers such as farm and informal sector workers.
Vavi points out that COSATU regards all workers who are not members of COSATU affiliates as unorganised. "And it is the duty of COSATU cadres to organise the unorganised," he adds.
The campaign will operationalise COSATU resolutions on sharing resources within the federation and ensure that the more powerful affiliates help weaker affiliates.
Vavi said the main task of affiliate head offices is to ensure that their branches, regional and other structures cooperate fully with the campaign and release the necessary resources.
"WE shouldn't just see this as a cost, but as an investment in our future. This campaign will guarantee the survival of the trade union movement and enable us to build the democratic order we are all striving for."
COSATU's congress resolution on strengthening organisation laid the basis for this sharing of resources, and identified the need to cultivate a new sense of belonging in the organisation. The resolution said that:
The success of the campaign relies on the full involvement of every part of COSATU's organisational machinery.
Vavi said every COSATU structure, from affiliate workplace structures to local, provincial and national structures will be a part of the organising machinery. Every COSATU member, shop steward, organiser, administrator, official and office bearer has a role to play.
National leadership from COSATU and affiliates will be deployed in the field throughout the month of April.
Vavi says the recruitment campaign will be an annual event and COSATU is determined to make this year's drive a success in order to set the pace for the years to come.
"The state of preparedness in each region will be assessed and there is an unequivocal undertaking from the Exco that where weaknesses are detected, affiliate organisers will be deployed to rectify this."
Planning for the campaign kicked off with a series of meetings in December last year, including one with COSATU regional secretaries and organiser/educators. This meeting developed a three-month programme for implementation of congress resolutions, with a strong focus on the recruitment campaign.
A meeting of affiliate general secretaries on 21 January threw its full weight behind the campaign and agreed to kick start planning and mobilisation.
Affiliates are expected to release people from their other duties to concentrate on the campaign.
"WE want affiliates to establish recruitment committees and full-time coordinators for the duration of the campaign," said Vavi. At a national level, COSATU will have a full-time recruitment campaign coordinator who will work closely with similar structures in provinces and regions.
"WE can't afford the weaknesses of previous campaigns, where people don't have proper information. We need an information system which will ensure the flow of information from regions and branches and feed this into the head offices of affiliates and in turn into COSATU head office," says Vavi.
Most COSATU regions have already convened regional meetings of affiliate organisers to plan for the campaign. Affiliate organisers have been tasked with the process of compiling detailed lists of the unorganised and poorly organised workplaces in their sectors.
"Local shop stewards councils will play a key role in the process as they know the situation in their workplaces and the industrial areas in the areas where they live and work," adds Vavi.
The campaign will also help launch new locals and revive those that have collapsed.
Data collected at local level and from affiliates will be fed into regional planning meetings which will draw up recruitment plans for their region. This will include practicalities to ensure the success of the campaign, including the workplaces to be targetted, the potential membership in these and the human resources required to implement the plan.
Planning will also include:
Comprehensive regional plans will be submitted to REC meetings on 18 February for fine tuning and finalisation.
During March, the chairpersons, organisers, regional secretaries, regional organisers/educators and other officials will tie up any loose ends.
The final plan will be presented to regional shop stewards councils (RSSC) on 28 and 29 March for mobilisation. The aim will be to inform the RISC of the targets, names assigned to particular areas, deployment to recruitment task teams, transport, pamphlets etc.
"Between now and the RSSCs, affiliates will be mobilising the necessary human resources, including asking for time off, especially for senior shop stewards who know COSATU policies."
The campaign will require a massive distribution of membership forms. The planning process will include working out how many and which forms will be required in each industrial area and to ensure that these are distributed effectively in the build-up to the campaign.
"This is the reason for the data collection," says Vavi. "WE don't want to walk blindly. We need to know where we are going, armed with the necessary information."
A key aspect will be a high profile publicity campaign, including a national pamphlet, sectoral and industrial area pamphlets as well as television and radio advertisements.
COSATU is also looking into setting up a toll-free telephone line to assist workers who want more information.
While massive recruitment is the major focus of the campaign, union general secretaries have warned against simply recruiting without consolidating this.
In the preparation phase, unions will have to ensure that they have the necessary internal capacity to deal with the new influx of members.
New shop stewards will have to be elected and trained. And unions will have to ensure that newly recruited workers are quickly integrated into affiliate and COSATU structures.
"WE are mindful of the fact that the campaign may expose poor servicing to existing membership and affiliates need to plan to ensure that no workers' hopes are dashed and that we fail to deliver. At the core of ensuring effective servicing of new members is the shop stewards elected in the process," says Vavi.
Recruitment will take place in line with COSATU's original demarcation, as set out at its founding congress in 1985. Last year's COSATU CEC set June this year as the deadline for its affiliates to hand over members who fall outside their original scope. Regional COSATU officials will identify poaching and a list of affiliates involved.
Vavi said steps will be taken against unions which refuse to do this.
Why should workers join COSATU?While the content of the recruitment campaign will be adapted to meet specific conditions in various sectors and industrial areas, the national focus will highlight COSATU's gains and victories in improving the lives of workers and the poor in the workplace and in the broader society. "We will focus on the victories scored at a workplace level through workplace organisation and participatory democracy, job security, the struggle for a living wage, training and affirmative action," said COSATU deputy general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. "We will highlight COSATU's role generally in improving the living standards of working people and the poor, including our past campaigns against VAT increases and interest rate hikes, our role in drawing up the RDP; and the rights we have won through our struggles around the new constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Labour Relations Act and the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill." And then of course there are COSATU's current struggles around job creation and the Skills Development and Employment Equity Bills.
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Countdown to recruitmentJanuary/February: PlanningAffiliate members: Identify potential new members in your workplace, set up workplace recruitment task teams. COSATU regions: Regional meetings of affiliate organisers, regional secretaries and office bearers; draw up regional plan and set regional targets; set up logistics; meetings with Alliance and MDM structures. Regional affiliate meetings: Data collection, identify shop stewards for deployment, negotiations for time off. Local shop stewards councils: Identify workplaces in the local for recruitment, targets, set up local task teams. Affiliate head offices: Set up recruitment teams and appoint coordinator, mobilise structures, identify people for deployment, set in place consolidation plans. 10/11 February: COSATU Exco to assess progress and make necessary interventions. 18 February: RECs to finalise comprehensive regional plans. March: Mobilisation and publicityRegional office bearers and officials tie up loose ends and final details. 23 March: High-profile public launch of the campaign. 28,29 March: Regional Shop stewards Councils (RSSCs) briefed on final plan for mobilisation and implementation. 31 March / 2 April: COSATU CEC April: ImplementationRecruitment month, implementation of regional plans, national co-ordination at COSATU Head Office. May: Consolidation1 May: Campaign culminates in May Day celebrations. Integration of new members into constitutional structures, election of shop stewards, training of shop stewards to ensure proper servicing etc.
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The campaign will focus on increasing union density in small towns throughout the region. Other plans are:
A regional organisers forum has been held, areas of focus have been identified and coordinators elected. Development of a regional plan in progress.
Regional meetings have been held, and organisers are setting up meetings in various locals. The process of data collection from affiliates is underway.
Meetings of affiliate chairpersons, organisers and educators in the region have been held to begin to plan for the campaign. Locals will play a key role and affiliates are identifying shop stewards for release. Another meeting of organisers and regional secretaries will take place prior to the REC on 18 February. Targetted areas will include outlying areas.
Regional meetings have been held and the process of collection of data is underway. Further strategic planning sessions of organisers will be held in February.
Data collection is under way. A meeting of organisers on 6 February took decisions on logistical arrangements.
Affiliate regional secretaries met on 3 February. Affiliates have appointed coordinators for the campaign and forwarded data on resources available. Task teams for targetted areas have been set up.
Local rallies and planning meetings are taking place. The REC will meet on 22 February to plan and discuss progress.
COSATU has responded positively to the main thrust of president Nelson Mandela's speech at the opening of parliament on February 6, but has raised concerns about public service job cuts.
In a statement endorsed by COSATU's February executive committee meeting, the federation welcomed Mandela's strong focus on improving the quality of life of our people, particularly the working poor.
"The President's commitment to concrete programmes which speed up the provision of basic infrastructure and services to the majority is welcome," the statement said, particularly commitments to extend the provision of public health care, electricity, housing, water, telecommunications, education and social welfare, including old age pensions.
"The President has given a clear indication that the government does not intend to leave the provision of these critical areas to the vagaries of the market, but that the state will have to play the pivotal role in this regard.
"Also welcome is the President's statement that government will not allow an obsession with macro-economic percentages, or fractions of percentages, to frustrate policies of delivery."
Mandela also reiterated his view that restructuring of state assets will not be determined by ideologically-driven privatisation, COSATU said. "Indeed the President has indicated the intention to create public corporations in certain strategic areas."
The federation welcomed the president's support for measures to transform the apartheid workplace, particularly the introduction of employment equity legislation.
"We support his view that minority parties are being irresponsible in attempting to whip up fears around affirmative action.
"We support his call to business to put the needs of the country first, to invest in the economy and our people, and to prioritise the issue of job creation. To this end, COSATU is committed to putting forward constructive proposals into the Presidential Jobs Summit, and detailed work is currently being undertaken in this regard."
The federation also backed president Mandela's campaign against corruption, and for moral regeneration, both in the public and private sectors.
On the international front, COSATU welcomed Government's commitment to place issues relating to globalisation and an alternative approach to international trade relations, finances and debt, on the agenda of the Non-Aligned Movement Conference to be held in South Africa this year, as well as in other international forums.
For more on President Mandela's speech in parliament, see the interview with ANC General Secretary Kgalema Motlanthe.
COSATU noted president Mandela's commitment to restructure the public sector within the ambit of labour law, and in a way that is sensitive to the situation of unemployment. However, the federation expressed concern that the current approach may have the opposite effect of what is intended.
"COSATU agrees with the view that we have inherited a dysfunctional state that needs to be restructured, to act as an effective agent of transformation.
"We are of the view, however, that restructuring, particularly of public sector staffing levels, needs to be done in a way which enhances service delivery and transformation, rather than retarding it." There should not be a mechanical approach to retrenchments which, for example, may lead to more clinics and schools, with fewer nurses and teachers to staff them.
"The victims of such retrenchments would precisely be such public sector workers engaged in service delivery, and poor communities; and not the apartheid-era bureaucrats who are soaking up public money.
"COSATU would strongly oppose a mechanical approach to retrenchments, together with our public sector unions."
"The question of staffing of the public service needs to be directly related to the question of whether staffing matches the actual delivery needs in any area. Historically the apartheid state over-governed the majority, but chronically under-serviced them. Where there is understaffing in critical areas of delivery, there needs to be an actual expansion of personnel, or upsizing. Where a bloated bureaucracy exists, this clearly needs to be cut back, or downsized."
However, COSATU pointed to a lack of accurate data on the public service's staff profile and said an audit identifying areas of wastage has yet to be done.
"COSATU calls for a National Framework Agreement on Restructuring the Public Service between government and labour based on accurate and reliable data as well as a commitment to a policy of right-sizing, rather than mechanical downsizing.
"We believe that in line with the decision taken at the Alliance Summit last year, a task team under the leadership of the Deputy President should urgently be set up, to look at restructuring the public service as an effective agent of delivery.
"The Alliance Task Team should, amongst other things agree on a process to expedite the proposed National Framework Agreement, based on the principles outlined above."
