Johannesburg - Cosatu’s national day of action, next Wednesday, will include delivering 10 memorandums of demand targeting the country’s four major banks, as well as Telkom, Prasa and the Chamber of Mines.
The National Economic Development and Labour Council has given the country’s largest trade union federation the go-ahead to hold the protected strike.
Next Wednesday is the International Day of Action, which is observed across the globe as part of the campaign to demand decent work.
Cosatu Gauteng secretary Dumisani Dakile said the provision of safe, reliable and accessible public transport for workers and the working class was of primary concern to the federation.
He said public transport in the country was currently “rotten, unreliable (and) unsafe”.
The federation also slammed the government’s importing of locomotives, saying South Africa possessed the expertise and capacity for constructing these in the country.
Dakile slammed the delays in delivery of the trains, which he said were promised in 2013.
He called for an end to the subsidisation of the Gautrain by the Gauteng provincial government.
Further, changes would be demanded next week for local procurement of buses, rather than importing these from Brazil and Mexico, he said.
“This will improve manufacturing capacity in the country,” he added.
The federation remains opposed to the rollout of e-tolls in the province, calling it “day light robbery” and demanding it be scrapped.
The financial sector would be targeted on the basis that retrenched workers be treated with “dignity”, despite defaulting on payments.
Dakile said Cosatu would support the Housing Class Action’s legal process, aimed at compelling banks to stop repossessing houses of owners who default on bank payments.
Memorandums to be delivered to the Chamber of Mines and Telkom would be aimed at halting retrenchments in the two industries.
“We can no longer fold our arms and allow monopoly capital to subject workers to poverty and unemployment as these measures have a direct contribution to the high level of inequalities in the country,” Dakile said.
The federation will also call for an end to labour broking in the public sector.
Labour Bureau