Unions march in Cape Town, Joburg
SOME parts of the country came to a standstill yesterday as about 20 affiliates of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) marched against the National Minimum Wage Bill and proposed amendments to the Labour Relations Act.
Zwelinzima Vavi, Saftu secretary-general, used the first national march under the banner of his trade union federation to launch a broadside at his former political home, Cosatu, as Saftu members gathered in major cities.
Addressing workers who had marched from the Newtown Precinct, Premier David Makhura’s office and the health and labour department, Vavi lampooned the leaders of Cosatu for signing on for the National Minimum Wage Bill, which, if passed, will see workers being paid about R20 an hour or R3 500 a month.
“We have given them the platform to defend the shame that they have signed at Nedlac (National Economic Development and Labour Council),” he said.
“Today we have shown them that they are not speaking on behalf of workers. They do not have a mandate. The only mandate they have is Cyril Ramaphosa’s mandate, the person they have put in power.
“Have you ever seen foolish workers who take a multimillionaire, put him in power and say he is the one who will liberate workers?” Vavi said the minimum wage envisaged would not sustain the living conditions of workers, adding that some employers would frustrate bargaining in the future and take comfort in only paying workers what he called “legalised slave wages”.
The National Minimum Wage Bill was scheduled to be signed into law by May 1, but Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant indicated that certain proposed amendments to the Labour Relations Act relating to strikes still needed to be endorsed by Parliament.
Saftu’s biggest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), have been the most vocal in opposing the incorporation of the proposed amendments, saying they were meant to weaken the bargaining power of labour and advantage employers.
Numsa deputy general secretary Karl Cloete slammed one of the amendments, which would allow employers to approach the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to facilitate a settlement should a strike carry on for a long period.
Hundreds of people, forming a sea of red Saftu T-shirts, made their way to the Cape Town Civic Centre and moved to Parliament to hand over memorandums. They sang struggle songs and held placards, some which read “Reject slavery wages”.
Cosatu indicated that it would not back Saftu’s action, which it called political grandstanding. The Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) said it totally rejected calls by the Saftu leadership for it to join Saftu in a nationwide strike.
“It can never be legitimate to allow highly irresponsible grandstanding to undermine a lot of hard work that was put in by organised labour represented by Fedusa, Cosatu and Nactu (National Council of Trade Unions) and the social partners of business and government at Nedlac over a twoyear period, in negotiating a minimum floor of wages in order to lift millions of vulnerable South African workers out of abject poverty,” said Fedusa.