FRIDAY, 5.30PM
THE Congress of SA Trade Unions announced on Friday it is to stage a 24-hour national strike on Monday in protest at the lack of progress in negotiations on sections of the new Basic Conditions of Employment Act in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
Cosatu representative Nowethu Mpati on Friday said union and non-union strikers will enjoy the protection of section 77(1a) of the new Labour Relations Act.
Mpati said Cosatu remains committed to resolving the impasse and is waiting for business and the government to initiate talks once they have revised their positions and received mandates from their principals. She said Cosatu will evaluate progress in the negotiations when its executive meets on June 24.
The SA Communist Party on Friday came out in support of Monday’s strike. “The strike must be used to warn bosses that there is no going back,” it said in a statement. The electoral mandate of the African National Congress-led government was reconstruction and development, and development included democratisation of the workplace, it said. “All attempts to block workplace democratisation in the name of competitiveness, flexibility or growth must be resisted.”