Saftu shows its muscle in first protest
• Thousands in action against national minimum wage
The first public showing by the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) may not push the government into scrapping any labour laws, but it has demonstrated that the year-old organisation enjoys significant support.
Hundreds of bus drivers holding out in a wage negotiations impasse may have bolstered the strike.
On Wednesday major cities across the country were transformed into a sea of red that resembled marches by Cosatu in its glory days.
Thousands of workers from different sectors, the majority of whom were members of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), Saftu’s biggest affiliate, joined in the mass action against the newly enacted national minimum wage rate of R20 an hour.
They are demanding R12,500 per month.
Saftu also opposes the introduction of a strike-balloting provision in the Labour Relations Act, describing it as “suicide” for workers and that it was intended to remove the right to strike.
The federation has more than 700,000 members, according to its unaudited figures, and is led by former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. Its ability to flex its muscles at a time when Cosatu-affiliated unions are facing an uphill battle with employers on multiple fronts without any real intervention by its partner — ANC deployees in the government — will count as a major political score.
Saftu will also have a case to make to rival federations Cosatu, the Federation of Unions of SA and the National Council of Trade Unions regarding participation at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
Saftu has claimed it is being kept out of the council through the implementation of new regulations, among which is a prerequisite that it submits audited membership figures.
“We are now going to demonstrate the power of the workers,” Vavi said, to an approving roar by the crowd.
The scenes witnessed throughout the country spoke volumes, labour analyst and mining consultant Reagoikanya Molopyane said. “The assumption has always been that because Saftu is perceived as Numsa-dominated … it cannot have people coming out in numbers in various provinces as we saw…. We saw that there is a lot of worker unhappiness,” Molopyane said.
Cosatu was one of the groupings, including business and the government, that negotiated the national minimum wage draft policy at Nedlac and has welcomed new labour policies, including the regulation of strikes.
“Whoever says farm workers must accept R18 per hour, to those who say mothers raising their children must accept R15, we say it is c**p,” Vavi bellowed.
Saftu is also objecting to the exclusion of domestic and farm workers from the initial implementation phase of the national minimum wage. The delay is meant to give employers enough time to adjust to the R20 hourly rate.
Domestic workers will earn only 75% of the minimum wage of R3,500, about R2,625 a month or R15 per hour.
Among those at the march was a domestic worker who told Business Day she did not understand why she was not included in the minimum wage, complaining that her earnings were barely sufficient to sustain her family.
Although she conceded the R12,500 Saftu demanded was unlikely to be implemented, she said the government should have “made it a living wage”.