SACTWU calls on all its members to support tomorrow’s COSATU general strike

Date: 6 OCT0BER 2020

Media release: immediate

SACTWU calls on all its members to support tomorrow’s COSATU general strike

The COSATU-affiliated Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) calls on all its members to support tomorrow’s COSATU general strike.

Besides the problem with poor and improper COVID-19 arrangements for taxi transport, we intend to highlight a number of other matters of serious concern to our members in the clothing, textile, leather & footwear, farming, food processing, supported enterprises, laundry and distribution sectors.

Key amongst these additional matters is the unacceptable employer attack on our collective bargaining agreement provisions.

In this regard, we are horrified that in almost all our sectors, employers have sought to undermine our members’ long-agreed existing conditions of employment. This unwarranted employer attack includes employer demands for wage cuts, reductions in employee benefits, scrapping of decade-old provisions such as annual bonuses, refusals to grant even modest wage increases this year, and others.

We will never allow employers to opportunistically exploit the COVID-19 crisis by punishing workers for its negative economic consequences.

We call on our more than 100 000 members nationally to support the COSATU general strike call tomorrow, to highlight the brutal attack on workers’ collective bargaining rights, as well as to show our rejection of corruption, job losses and gender-based violence.

We call on all our members to support the local action of motorcades and socially distanced picketing tomorrow, in support of the COSATU demands as set out in its Section 77 legal notice to NEDLAC.

We point out that the action tomorrow is protected by the provisions of Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA).

In other words, it is a legal strike which allows ALL workers in South Africa (irrespective of their economic sector) to participate in it, and for which not a single worker can be disciplined and/or victimized.

We specifically call on all our members to stay away from work tomorrow, in support of the legitimate demands which we intend to highlight.

Issued by

Andre Kriel
SACTWU
GENERAL SECRETARY

If further comment is required, kindly contact:

Membinkosi Vilina, SACTWU Deputy General Secretary, on office number 031 3011 351 or cell number 081 585 3798, or
Bonita Loubser, SACTWU 1st National Organising Secretary, on office number 021 4474570 or cell number 082 800 7142, or
Michael Shabalala, SACTWU 2nd Organising Secretary, on office number 031 3011 351 or cell number 081 782 3753.