Numsa president Andrew Chirwa called for greater co-operation between the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and Numsa’s former mother body, Cosatu.
Chirwa was speaking yesterday on the first day of Numsa’s three-day bargaining council. The meeting will set the tone for this year’s wage negotiations in different sectors where Numsa organises.
The union and all bargaining officials in various sectors will meet to prepare and consolidate demands from all the sectors that the union is organised in as part of preparations for wage talks.
This year, the conference will focus on Motor, Tyre, Auto, Infrastructure, Bus, Aviation, Eskom, Rotek, Road Accident Fund (RAF), Comair, Catering, Security and House Agreements.
Chirwa said it was clear that collective bargaining was under attack from greedy employers. He said the only way that workers could defend collective bargaining was through unity.
Chirwa emphasised that an alliance with Cosatu would not mean being part of the ANC’s tripartite alliance, but this would only mean greater co-operation for the benefit of the struggle of the working class.
Numsa was once one of the biggest unions inside the Cosatu block but left the federation because of ideological and political differences.
The union now makes up a big block in the Saftu pyramid of unions.
“If we are to succeed in fighting back and defending the status of workers, we cannot do it alone. We need much broader working-class unity beyond our logos that we must love so much, beyond the colour of our T-shirts. If it means we must engage Cosatu unions. They must be engaged. We need a much broader alliance to defend collective bargaining,“ Chirwa said.
He bemoaned the collapse of South African State Enterprises, which has led to the loss of jobs in companies like SAA and Mango. Chirwa blamed the ruling party and the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, for enabling SOEs to be privatised.
“SOEs, which used to create the necessary jobs, which used to stimulate the economy, have collapsed in front of our eyes. Eskom is on the way out to be sold to private hands. Unbundling is another word for privatisation. The Minister of Public Enterprises has got a different agenda. Pravin Gordhan is clear that these things must just be given to private hands.“
Chirwa said the three-day meeting was important in enabling the union to come up with collective bargaining strategies that would respond to the challenges that the working class face today.
“Capital continues to innovate and continues to transform itself. Capital of today is different from what we had 10 years ago. Many of the types of jobs we used to have 10 years ago have disappeared and are no longer there. With the 4IR, we are guaranteed that things are going to change rapidly,” Chirwa said.
Chirwa said workers were victims of unfair treatment by employers who kept on reducing wages for workers while, in some instances, retrenching workers under the banner of the knock-on effect of Covid 19 on revenue.
“The bargaining conference is taking place at a time when the working class has been bruised by Covid-19 and its crippling effects. We are under attack its restructuring lay-offs, retrenchments and planned closures.”
Chirwa said South Africa’s distribution of wealth was questionable, with nearly 10% of the population owning more than 85% of South African wealth.
The sad state of reality was that 54% of workers did not receive salary increases in South Africa.