The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says preparations are in place for its national stayaway on Thursday.
The one-day strike action is aimed at putting pressure on the government to change its current fiscal policy of freezing public sector wages and cutting budget allocations to social services including the dispute resolutions body, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
The Cosatu strike is aiming at getting the attention of the National Treasury ahead of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament next month.
Cosatu mobilising for national stay away on Thursday:
Cosatu General Secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali says, “If there’s no change in the country’s economic policy, the already low level of standard of living will deteriorate significantly. More livelihoods will be destroyed by the resultant turmoil.”
“We didn’t at this time extend the issues to any other federation, but they are free to join. We discussed this matter at our central committee where other federations were invited,” adds Ntshalintshali.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) national strike in the engineering sector went into full gear.
Workers marched to the Metal and Engineering Industry Bargaining Council (Meibc) as part of the first day of action.
They handed over a memorandum of demands to the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) at its headquarters in Johannesburg.
Seifsa willing to go back to the negotiating table:
