BRONWEN ROBERTS, Midrand | Friday
IN its latest public disagreement with government, powerful labour federation Cosatu has threatened to launch a general nationwide strike if the government goes ahead with key changes to labour laws.
The 1.8-million-member federation drew up a programme of action to fight the changes, which it says would undermine workers’ gains since apartheid ended in 1994.
“We are saying to government and business, if they violate our rights, we’ll do to them what we’ve done to the apartheid regime,” Cosatu president Willie Madisha told more than 2_ 000 delegates in his closing address to the federation’s annual congress.
Cosatu says the labour law amendments would allow the labour minister to vary core labour agreements, thus removing the basic floor rights of workers, undermine collective bargaining and result in increased lay-offs.
It has also flatly rejected a proposal to eliminate a premium payment for Sunday work.
This disagreement with the government was one of several which marked the congress. The federation and the South African Communist Party (SACP) – the third leg of the alliance which helped the ANC to power – also differ with the ruling party over the government’s market-friendly macro-economic policy and its stance on HIV/Aids.
The congress, held at Midrand, unanimously adopted a resolution calling on President Thabo Mbeki and his government to stop speculating on the causes of Aids and provide treatment for HIV-positive pregnant mothers and rape victims.
It also endorsed a report which again rejected the government’s Growth, Employment and Resdistribution (GEAR) policy saying it had caused rising unemployment and cuts in the budgets for social services.
The report stated that Cosatu will “develop an alternative economic policy” and build a mass campaign among workers “against the current package of conservative economic policies.”
Despite the differences plaguing the ruling alliance, however, the congress pledged support for the ANC in local government elections due in November.
Divisions within the alliance did not mean it would splinter, said Vavi. But, added Madisha: “It doesn’t mean that if we are in the alliance, when workers’ rights are trampled on, we keep quiet.”
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