The Congress of South African Trade Unions sends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of the late former SACCAWU President, Comrade Amos Mothapo, who passed away after a bout of illness. Comrade Mothapo was a long serving COSATU CEC member, who led the retail sector trade union for many years. He waged a relentless fight against labour brokers and labour casualizations. We will remember him as a disciplined and dedicated worker leader, who led the workers struggles with integrity and devotion. He is one of the leaders, who was always ready to confront the workplace challenges facing the workers and the socio-economic challenges facing the working class in general. We shall honour his memory by working hard to build a united, growing, militant, independent and fighting federation that will continue to be a major factor in the political and economic life of our country. May his soul rest in eternal peace! The federation in Gauteng will host a memorial service that will be addressed by COSATU CEC Members.

The details of the service are as follows;
Date:     28th July 2016
Venue:  Orlando Community Hall opposite Orlando Stadium,
Orlando East
Time:    13h00

The family house is at 5747 Ngubane Street, Orlando East. We are calling on all workers and members of COSATU to give their last respects and give this committed workers leader a fitting send off. For more information contact: Dumisani Dakile – COSATU Gauteng Provincial Secretary on  082 727 1422

TMG Digital reports that the Automobile Association (AA) has advised motorists to ensure they have fuel‚ ahead of a strike by the Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu), set to begin on Thursday. “It is our understanding that the strike will affect all refineries and depots of petroleum companies.

This strike does not include petrol pump attendants‚ but will start to impact motorists once the pumps at petrol stations start to run dry‚” the AA said.  The association recommended that motorists top up their fuel tanks as regularly as reasonably possible.  In addition‚ the AA said motorists should avoid taking unnecessary journeys.  It is unclear how long the industrial action‚ over worker demands for a 9% pay hike‚ will last.

Full report at TimesLive

The Congress of South African Trade Unions supports its affiliate the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) in its planned strike over wage negotiations against the employers in the chemical industry, the National Petroleum Employers Association. CEPPWAWU has already served a 48 hours industrial strike notice with effect from tomorrow , Thursday, 28th July 2016 ,and they have made it very clear that they ready to lead workers to streets in demand of a living wage.

It is unacceptable that the employers have refused to accede to the workers reasonable demands , especially considering that the high consumer price inflation means food, transport, goods and services have orbited further away from the reach of working class families. The price of bread has gone up 10.6% and transport by 8.7%.  The current employers offer of a mere 6,5% on wage increment is wholly inadequate. COSATU is calling on the employers to accede to the workers demands of a 9% wage increase , minimum wage of R8,000 and a one year agreement. To avoid strikes and improve labour relations employers need to address the extreme levels of inequality and poverty wages they pay workers. A meaningful living wage is also good for the economy because it will make a significant contribution to stimulating equitable economic growth and development.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions under the leadership of its Deputy General Secretary, Cde Solly Phetoe, will be visiting the farm workers and farm dwellers in the North West farm of Rooistad in Klerksdorp tomorrow, 28 JULY 2016, to fight their illegal eviction by the new of farm owner. This workplace visit will be done jointly with the department of Rural Development and Land Reform in the province.  These poor farm workers, who have spent their whole lives on that farm, are being evicted with no regard to  due legal processes by the new owner. The DGS of COSATU will also be joining National Union of Mineworkers during the union’s door to door and recruitment campaigns in the area of Marikana, Rustenburg on the same date of the 28th July 2016 .The visit at the farm will start at 08h30am and the Marikana campaign in the afternoon. COSATU is deeply troubled by the farming sector’s total disregard for the country’s labour laws.

We have seen a troubling continuation of the illegal evictions of farm workers and farm dwellers, who are not even given insufficient time notification or alternative housing. We cannot allow generations of farm workers, who were born on the farms, where they work, to be treated and evicted in the same way they were evicted by the evil apartheid regime.
We expect  the department of Rural development and Labour Reform and of Labour  to invest more resources to protect farm workers and also the Human Rights Commission needs to play its role to protect vulnerable farm workers.   

Engineering News reports that the SA Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) on Tuesday said it was still engaging with the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and the Pelindaba Workers’ Union (PWU) on salary increases and conditions of service.  The two unions, acting jointly, are demanding increases of 7% to 12% and notified Necsa of a possible strike if their demands were not met.

Negotiations started in May, with the unions submitting 11 demands.  The unions declared a dispute after the second round of negotiations, which they also referred to the CCMA.  “The negotiations with both unions are still in progress and will continue until a resolution is reached.  We remain optimistic on reaching an amicable agreement with the unions through the negotiation process,” Necsa stated.

Ref: SALabourNews

The Communication Workers Union will be holding media briefing to speak on the following:
*  Strike in Telkom, Trudon and WNS
*  Outsourcing in MTN

 Details of the conference are as follows:
Date :      Thursday 28th July 2016
Venue :   222 Smith Street , 20th Floor , Braamfontein, JHB
Time   :    11: 00 am

For more information please contact General Secretary, Aubrey Tshabalala on 061 48111080.

ANA reports that the Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) has served a 48-hours’ strike notice on employers in the chemical industry, the National Petroleum Employers Association and also the National Bargaining Council for the Chemical Industry.

General secretary Simon Mofokeng said on Monday the union was demanding a 9% wage increase against the employers’ offer of 6.5%.  The union is also seeking a minimum monthly wage of R8,000, a one-year agreement and for non-continuous workers to be covered by the shift allowance  The strike notice follows deadlocked wage talks.

Read the report at Business Report

The Congress of South African Trade unions in the North West province together with the community and Tribal Authority of Bodibe have gathered here not because we wanted to, but because of the continued attitude of the management of Lafarge in particular the HR Director, who has failed to transform the company. On the contrary, the HR Director has encouraged that workers must be exploited or targeted when they raised their dissatisfaction.

COSATU have been reliably informed by NUM that the company has entered into an agreement with them but failed to implement it. We view the action as arrogance and union bashing. We will make sure that Lafarge respect the union and its members by implementing the decision taken. The company attempted to forcefully relocate the full time shop stewards from Lichtenburg to Head Office so that they can be able to exploit members of NUM.

Why is relocation done after the full time shopstewards requested the company to implement the agreement of housing subsidy and closing wage gap?  It is clear that he is being shifted to Head Office because he is deemed a problem and the company must deal with him so that they destroy NUM in Lafarge and that cannot be tolerated. We are aware that the full-time shopsteward is a target again because he is part of the Tribal Council of Bodibe and he knows that the company failed to honour commitments and agreement entered to with the Tribal Authority. The Tribal Authority of Bodibe has been raising complains to the company but the company chose not to engage with Tribal Council. This is a clear indication of how arrogant Lafarge company is!

Cosatu supports all the demands of Tribal Authority of Bodibe and based on the above we demand the following:

1. That all workers to return to their respective work unconditionally.
2. That the company meet with Cosatu and NUM to resolve all issues that workers have raised such as Housing subsidy and closing wage gap.
3. That the company must cancel suspension of Fulltime shop stewards and he must resume his duty immediately.
4. That company must meet with Cosatu and Tribal Authority of Bodibe to engage on issues that affect both community and workers who reside in that area.
5. That the HR Director lead a process of transformation in the company. 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions in Limpopo is fully supports the protest march by the National Union of Mineworkers, Foskor Branch in Phalaborwa planned as follows:
Date                            : 22 July 2016
Assembly point           : Foskor Mine, Main Security Gate
Destination                 : Moshate House
Time of Departure      : 12h30

The following are some of the demands to be presented in a memorandum to the mine management and the Board of Directors:

• Payment of bonuses for 2015/2016 financial year
• Demand that outsourcing of the North Pit must stop immediately
• Quality business opportunities for local business people
• Insourcing of clinic and security 

For more information contact Gerald Mkhomazi Twala, COSATU Provincial Secretary at 071 587 2872 or Phillip Mankge, NUM North East Regional Secretary at 083 536 5947

The Congress of South African Trade Unions will participate in the National Day against Child Labour as organized by the Department of Labour at Cullinan, in Gauteng. It is on record that there are still 168 million children in child labour, 85 million of whom in hazardous work across the globe. 

COSATU participated in the ILO launching of the International Labour Conference commemorative event in which global unions have declared; End Child Labour in supply chains: It’s everyone’s business. The commemorations are organized under the Theme ‘Let me be the Child’ and are arranged as follows;

Date: 22 July 2016
Venue: Cullinan Community Sports Ground
Time: 09h30

The Deputy Minister of Labour will address the community of Cullinan about the adverse effects of child labour.