Durban - Cosatu painted Durban’s CBD red on Friday, in a bid to highlight the plight of workers.
The federation commemorated World Day for Decent Work with a nationwide march, and in Durban, the march commenced at King Dinizulu Park.
The first stop, in the CBD was at Game, before proceeding to the harbour, to raise their concerns ranging from the privatisation of Transnet and ports, outsourcing at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) and the looming retrenchment at the SA Petroleum Refineries (SAPREF) and the monopolisation and “exploitation” of employees by Walmart/Massmart.
According to the provincial secretary of Cosatu, Edwin Mkhize, the day was used to advance the struggles of workers, and to raise issues in sectors where there were high levels of “exploitation of workers” and where they felt the government and private employers were advancing “neoliberal agendas”.
"These agendas include privatisation, outsourcing, issues of downgrading of workers and unfair bargaining, among other issues. So we are using this day to challenge government and employers to address all these issues,” he said. He said that they were against the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, including Transnet, as it was detrimental to workers, society and the country’s gradual development a state vision.
He said that Prasa also had many areas of concern. “At Prasa, they have also begun outsourcing some sections of the company, which undermines the commitment to affordable public transport, quality infrastructure and also ensuring that the major goods are not on the road and can be transported by rail.
“The jobs of employees are also on the line,” he said. “SAPREF said they are closing up the window for offers because they have enough potential investors but now they’re saying they want to retrench workers. It’s like it is the fault of workers, while they should have fast-tracked the process of selling the whole institution to potential investors so that workers do not suffer,” said Mkhize.
He said that their concerns were not with the Game store in particular, but with the Walmart/Massmart group because of the closure of some of their stores, retrenchment of workers and poor working conditions and pay. A memorandum was submitted to Massmart management calling for the reversal of unilateralism, reasonable wage demands and the commitment to full engagement and treatment of the union and workers.
They were given five days to respond. Mkhize said that they were giving the minister and the department of transport 14 days to respond to their grievances. “We do follow-ups on the memorandums that we submit and we will demand a response because we are not doing this for fun, it is real struggles that we are raising,” he said.
Meanwhile, Satawu and the United National Transport Union (UNTU) confirmed that they would be continuing to protest tomorrow as planned. They noted that as a result of the picketing rules not being agreed to by Transnet management, they would picket peacefully outside Transnet premises without picketing rules as they were still in dispute.
The parties would also be meeting with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration commissioners tomorrow, regarding the wage dispute and to address Transnet’s refusal to agree on picketing rules. Transnet workers downed tools in Durban and Richards Bay on Thursday after the UNTU and Satawu rejected the state-owned ports and rail operator’s latest pay offer of a 3%, citing that it was not in line with the annual inflation rate.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE