SAFTU calls for economic shutdown
The King Cetshwayo SAFTU branch urges all workers to participate in next week's strike
THE South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) is calling for a total shutdown of the economy and urges all workers to join in the stay away in Durban next week.
Arranged to take place on 25 April, there will be buses departing from Richards Bay and surrounding areas.
‘We are protesting against the proposed National Minimum Wage bill and amendments to labour laws,’ said Thulani Xulu, SAFTU Secretary for the King Cetshwayo District.
SAFTU says the legislation will continue to entrench poverty and that proposed amendments to labour laws will undermine the workers’ right to strike.
The strike aims to defend the workers’ right to strike and fight for a living wage and decent working conditions.
According to SAFTU, the changes to labour legislation and the minimum wages were decided on ‘in an undemocratic manner behind the backs of workers, and were then subjected to manipulation by Labour Department officials’.
‘The national minimum wage will do nothing except entrench apartheid wage structures, keep millions of workers trapped in poverty and slave wages, and widen income inequality,’ said Xulu.
‘In addition to this, the NEDLAC (National Economic Development and Labour Council) parties have launched the most savage attack on the constitutional right of workers to strike.’
According to SAFTU, changes to the labour legislation will mean that workers must ballot secretly before embarking on a strike. Unions will be required to amend their constitutions to give effect to secret balloting and engage in long and conciliation processes before workers can strike.
Employers will have the right to approach the CCMA and courts to force compulsory arbitration if in their opinion the strike lasts too long.
SAFTU demands the amendments on strike ballots to be scrapped to restore the right of workers to strike, bosses to not be able to use ‘scab’ labour, a national monthly minimum wage decided by workers themselves, and for labour inspectors to consult with workers before workplace inspections.
A memorandum of grievances will be handed to the relevant government entity.
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