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The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will launch a major strike this week as ongoing disputes between workers and the government come to a head.
The federation has called on all workers and South Africans to join the strike, citing the government’s continued failure to comply with its wage agreement and repeated failures in the provision of basic health and transportation services.
BusinessDay Newspaper reports that about 1.3 million workers will embark on a slow march from lunchtime on Monday (October 5).
The workers will implement the ‘principle of working by the rules’, a form of protest in which employees do exactly what is stated in their contracts, and nothing else, as a means to stop production.
While the strike action will focus primarily on the wage dispute, Cosatu’s general secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali, has said that the federation also wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to speed up prosecutions of corrupt people.
“He (Ramaphosa) must stop negotiating with criminals and use the only language that they will understand, which is prosecution and sentencing,” said Ntshalintshali.
The strike is expected to reach a critical point on Wednesday (October 7), when the unions undergo a nationwide strike.
Gautrain workers affiliated with the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), for their part, will also go on strike starting Monday.
Numsa has said he has no choice but to go ahead with his planned strike action Monday at Gautrain until management returns to the table to renegotiate.
Gautrain’s operator, Bombela Operating Company, would have offered workers a 4.1% wage increase, however the union is demanding an 8% increase.
We are proceeding with the #GautrainStrike tomorrow, Monday, October 5, 2020. Our members will picket the offices of the Bombela Operating Company tomorrow to highlight their demands. Details below … 👇🏾👇🏾
.@SAFTU_media
.@IOL
.@ News24
.@ Radio702 pic.twitter.com/5Tq65anHWA– NUMSA (@Numsa_Media) October 4, 2020
Remember that due to the strike action starting on Monday, October 5, trains will be available every 30 minutes. The peak in the morning is between 05:30 and 09:00 and the peak in the afternoon is between 15:00 and 19:00. To view the train schedule, visit https://t.co/x89qZAhhR3
– Gautrain (@TheGautrain) October 4, 2020
Salary negotiations
The South African government is opposing an offer by unions to force the state to honor a public service wage agreement, warning that the agreement would impose the country 37.8 billion rand of additional debt. Bloomberg reported.
In April, the government reneged on an agreement to increase the pay of more than 1.2 million public servants as part of an effort to stabilize state finances.
Public salaries are established through negotiation with the unions and the agreements are valid for three years. The current agreement is in effect until March 2021.
However, in February, the government asked to review the last tranche of a three-year payment agreement because it said it could not pay it.
The coronavirus pandemic has further exacerbated the country’s financial woes with the unions and the government which is now ready for a showdown.
Raising the salaries of government employees is unaffordable, particularly given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on state finances, Treasury Director General Dondo Mogajane said in an affidavit on July 17.
“The government is forced by the Covid-19 pandemic to spend public funds (which are already in deficit) to alleviate the plight of the poor and vulnerable,” he said. “Unfortunately, the government simply cannot in these circumstances grant the applicant’s request for additional increases.”
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