SAMWU2.png SAMWU Mobilising Workers for COSATU National Strike The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) is mobilising its members to join the COSATU National Strike on the 7th October 2016. As an affiliate, we have a duty to support programmes and campaigns that seek to better the lives of South African workers. This is a protected strike and as such workers who participate in this action will be protected. SAMWU will be demanding the end of casualisation of work particularly in local government. Casualisation and privatising municipal services has resulted in exploitation of workers through the use of tenders and the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP). SAMWU is of the view that EPWP workers are rendering municipal services and as such they should be employed directly and permanently by municipalities with all the benefits that municipal workers are currently enjoying. We will also be demanding an end to the offensive launched by the DA against workers in municipalities wherein they want to retrench workers without proper consultation, particularly in Tshwane. We take this as an attack on collective bargaining and the gains that workers have made in this regard. We will therefore be defending our constitutional right to collective bargaining which is currently under attack. Our listening campaign has revealed that some municipalities continually employ workers on a temporary basis, with some workers having worked for municipalities for decades as permanent casuals. This despite the recently amended Labour Relations Act which clearly stipulates that any worker employed for a period longer than 3 months on a contract basis should automatically be employed on a permanent basis. We will therefore be using this day to campaign and demand the immediate and full implementation of the LRA by all municipalities. We will further be demanding an end to contract work in municipalities arguing that workers should be employed permanently and directly by municipalities. The country's unemployment and poverty levels are currently at unacceptably high levels particularly among the youth. We will there be demanding the creation of decent jobs for South Africans so that they too can participate in the country's economy. We want to see an end to precarious work in the country and have a situation wherein people have decent and well paying jobs. It is for this reason that we will also be demanding for the implementation of the national minimum wage. SAMWU is of the view that the national minimum wage will go a long way in addressing issues of inequality in the country. Our fight for the scrapping of the dysfunctional and irrational e-tolling system is not over. When government announced the e-toll dispensation, we outrightly rejected them arguing that no form of amendment or discount will be accepted. We will therefore be using this day to demand the scrapping of this system and that government should invest in quality, cheap and reliable public transport systems for the working class who use large percentages of their income on transport to go sell their labour in exchange for peanuts. As poor parents who are unable to send our children to universities, we will be using this national day of action to demand free and quality tertiary education. Our position is that no child should be denied access to institutions of higher learning as a result of their parents' financial situation. We therefore call on all our members to participate in this international day of action. We should not rest until such a time that our demands for decent jobs are met. Issued by on 3 October 2016 by SAMWU Head Office Contact: Simon Mathe, General Secretary, 079 887 8389 or Papikie Mohale, National Media Officer, 060 416 6661 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14219 (20161003) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/005e01d21d99%24253c0d20%246fb42760%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
