INLSA

20/12/11 Zwelinzima Vavi General Secretary of Cosatu during a year end press conference held at Bramfontein JHB. (694) Photo: Leon Nicholas

Wiseman Khuzwayo

Given the stagnation in the economy, continued high unemployment and casualisation of work, there had been no improvement in South Africa’s huge levels of poverty and inequality, Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of Cosatu, said yesterday when presenting the trade union federation’s end-of-year message.

He said 50 percent of the South African population lived on 8 percent of the national income. This means that for every R100 of national income earned, almost 25 million people share just R8 of that money.

A 2010 UN Development Programme report says 44 percent of workers in South Africa live on less than R10 a day, which leaves little change from the price of a loaf of bread, which cost R7.30 in April.

Vavi said Statistics SA figures showed that about 60 percent of all workers employed in the formal economy earned less than R2 000 a month and a staggering 15 percent earned less than R500 a month.

He said millions of the poorest South Africans were kept alive only because of access to social grants, which now accounted for 58 percent of household income for the lowest income quintile.

“The expansion of social grants is one of the ANC government’s finest achievements, yet it is intolerable that so many millions should have no other source of income. We need decent well-paid jobs,” Vavi said.

He said most casual workers and those employed by labour brokers were deprived of security and access to trade union membership.

This was why the battle against casualisation and labour brokers had been such a dominant feature of the year.

Vavi said: “Cosatu will be campaigning strongly against the proposed attack on the labour laws, including the suggestion that unions be sued for damages caused during trade union demonstrations, which threatens the right to strike.”

He said the federation was organising a general strike and national demonstrations against labour broking at the end of February or the beginning of March.

Cosatu cancelled the strike action which was due to take place on October 5 because it had not notified the National Economic Development and Labour Council. But yesterday Vavi said the federation had already declared a dispute at the forum and the strike would go ahead as planned.

Vavi said Cosatu remained adamantly opposed to the invasion of Africa by the world’s biggest retailer, Walmart, which had a terrible industrial relations record. Its entry into other countries had led to massive job losses as it compelled all retailers to adopt its own cut-throat tactics in order to compete and survive.

“We fear the loss of jobs not only in retail stores but manufacturers, service providers and small businesses arising from the company’s procurement practices, whereby they secure the cheapest products from anywhere in the world regardless of how badly the workers who make them are treated.”