Amandla!!!
Viva ANC Viva;
Viva Cosatu Viva;
Viva SACP Viva;
Viva SANCO Viva;
Long live National Union of Mineworkers Long Live;
Long Live the Spirit of Elijah Barayi, Long Live;
Amandla!!!
National Office Bearers of the National Union of Mineworkers;
Members of the National Executive Committee;
President of Cosatu
Ministers and Deputy Ministers here present
Leadership of the Tripartite Alliance and SANCO
Distinguished Guests
Comrades and Friends
Ladies and Gentlemen
June 2015 is the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter, a vision for a democratic South Africa which is as relevant today as it was 60 years ago. It is of utmost significance that this year we are commemorating 60 years of the Seminal Road-Map that was set by the Congress of the People, not to be confused with any other Congress of the People, but the one and only, that met in Kliptown in 1955.
The most remarkable feature of the birth of the Freedom Charter was that it attempted to do what had never been done before in the history of South Africa – it allowed ordinary people, irrespective of race, language, sex, religion, class, educational standard, personal beliefs, values and organisational affiliation, to speak about their hopes and dreams of the future.
The Freedom Charter provided a clear and concise set of policies, aims and objectives and principles of the Congress Alliance. It served as a vision of a post-apartheid South Africa, which was to be used as a mobilising and organising weapon in the struggle for democracy. It is therefore not by accident that the Freedom Charter has to this day, remained the cornerstone of the ruling Party’s policies and it is, in all accounts, the foundation of the South African Constitution.
There are many instances where the Freedom Charter is captured word for word in many passages of our Constitution, the ruling party’s Election Manifestos and in our Labour Laws.
It is also true that our labour laws are an expression of the Congress of the people’s declaration that ‘There shall be Work and Security’.
What relevance does all of this hold for the National Union of Mineworkers?
The National Union of Mineworkers has a long history of association with the Freedom Charter as I would try to illustrate later on in my address.
You will also know that out of the 3000 delegates that converged in Kliptown to hammer out the Freedom Charter, a sizeable majority of them were ordinary workers. I would not be surprised if most of them were mine workers judging from some of the demands that ended up in the Charter.
Please join me as we go down memory lane: On 30th November 1985, more than 760 delegates from 33 unions descended on the sports hall of the University of Natal, in Durban, to inaugurate the new trade union federation, COSATU. The National Union of Mineworkers had the largest presence at the launch as it was the biggest affiliate with over two hundred thousand paid up members at the time. You will also recall that your then General Secretary, Cyril Ramaphosa, presided over this milestone and historical launch.
The late Elijah Barayi, who was the vice President of your union at the time, was elected the first President of the new-born giant, COSATU.
Elijah Barayi was known for deviating from his written speeches to send stern warnings to PW Botha. He would in some instances give Botha ultimatums. This was Elijah Barayi teaming up with the likes of Chris Dlamini, Umbhemu, as he was affectionately known, doing what they knew best, to lead in the difficult times. Elijah Barayi was not so great in leading a revolutionary song as that was left to Chris who was par excellence in that department.
The National Union of Mineworkers was the first of the newly formed COSATU affiliates to adopt the Freedom Charter. On 14 to 18 July 1987 when Cosatu held its second National Congress, one of the issues on the agenda was the proposal by the National Union of Mineworkers that Cosatu, as the mineworkers had done, should adopt the Freedom Charter. Some of you may remember how heated that debate was? Despite a contrary motion by Numsa, which demanded that only large, mass-based socialist-oriented organisations be accepted as allies, the NUM resolution was adopted.
We can also remember two years later on 12 July 1989, when Cosatu held its third congress at Nasrec, NUM delegates openly exhibiting the symbols of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe and the South African Communist Party which other delegates followed suit later in the day. Again the National Union of Mineworkers showing leadership during arguably very difficult times in our history.
Mine workers generally are brave and they have fought when it mattered most. If you glean the history of industrial relations in South Africa, it starts with the mineworkers as far back as 1941.
If you lift some of the key highlights of the workers struggle, you guaranteed to find mineworkers in the mix of things.
Sol Plaaitjie, the first Secretary General of the African National Congress, describing the lives of the South African black miners in 1914 once said,
“Two hundred thousand subterranean heroes who, by day and by night, for a mere pittance lay down their lives to the familiar 'fall of rock' and who, at deep levels, ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 feet in the bowels of the earth, sacrifice their lungs to the rock dust which develops miners' pneumonia and other lung related diseases."
In 1941 when JB Marks and his Comrades, first mooted the decision to launch the Mine Workers' Union, the wage rate for African workers was R70 per year while white workers received R848.
In 1946, the year of the great strike the wage rate was R87 for African workers and R1, 106 for white workers. You will notice that in both scenarios the wage gap between the white worker and the black worker was 12:1. At the centre of the 1946 strike was a demand for higher wages of 10 shillings a day and improvements on the working conditions in general as described by Sol Plaaitjie back in 1914.
In both observations by Sol Plaaitjie and JB Marks, confirms that these workers would on balance of probabilities return to their villagers with no penny and often sick.
I am taking you through these important milestones to illustrate that indeed your union has a history and a rich history for that matter. Your contribution in shaping the new South Africa in general and the labour relations dispensation is impeccable and it is for these reasons that it is very comforting to be associated with the National Union of Mineworkers.
These in my view, demonstrate the connection that this union has with the Freedom Charter. The leadership of this union can rightfully claim to have been the disciples of the Freedom Charter and have pursued this objective with a high degree of success.
Comrade Acting President; The vision and mission of your union is to organise all Mine, Construction and Energy workers, protect, promote and advance the interests of your members; unite, turn the workers’ dreams into reality; inspire, educate and most importantly, render effective and quality service to your members. That is what I have gleaned from your constitution as your reasons for existence.
I hope that you will therefore agree with me that this congress would have failed in its duty, if it does not conduct an honest introspection of how the union is doing against its vision and mission as that is what congresses are for, to take stock and map the way forward.
We are all aware of the set-backs that the union has suffered in the recent past and one can only hope that with time, you will be able to claw-back the lost ground and occupy your rightful position as the leader in the industrial relations world of work.
It is also correct that there may have been cases where the Department of labour was found wanting in more ways than one. You know as much as I do that it is very tricky to determine when is it appropriate to intervene and when you do, how do you make sure that it does not undermine the integrity of the very institutions that were set up to do this work. They may have also been cases where it all had to do with timing.
There are severe limitations to what politicians can do Comrades, especially on matters that are governed by our constitution and legislations. I have come to understand and accept that Ministers of Labour are not very popular people. There are times when the employers curse Labour Ministers as being too pro-workers, and there are also times when workers themselves feel the Ministers of labour should have done more on a particular case. Without getting into the merit and demerits of that as it is very much part of the territory.
However this brings me to what the late Nelson Mandela once wrote to Comrade Adelaide Tambo back in 1977, and I quote, “Significant progress is always possible if we, ourselves, plan every detail and allow intervention of fate only on our own terms.
Preparing a master plan, and applying it, are two different things.” Close Quote.
If we follow this train of thought, it becomes clear that there will be lesser instances where we call for interventions of others on the things we planned if our Master Plan was carefully mapped out and the execution thereof was flawless.
In as much as I am calling for the union to be more vigilant in doing its work, the Department of Labour must also be equal to the task in those areas where it has a role to play. There may have been instances where the department has not been too useful for your course, we must acknowledge that. However going forward we must raise those issues and deal with them head on.
I am aware that the Federation is not entirely happy with some of the treatment they get from the department. Please be advised that these issues have been brought to the attention of the New Director-General and are receiving attention.
Comrade Chair, your brief to me for this congress said I must also talk about the state of labour relations in South Africa, Retrenchments and how to deal with unemployment. The starting point I guess will be to recognise that our labour relations environment has always been and will always be, a contested terrain. The balance of forces always shapes the tone of labour relations at a given point.
In countries where trade unions are strong, the labour relations barometer often tilt in favour of workers and where trade unions are somewhat weak, the opposite is the case.
For some of us who grew up in the tradition of a strong and vibrant COSATU, it never crossed our minds that one day there could be any union that could compete with a Cosatu affiliate in the manner that we have observed recently.
It was for that reasons that our labour legislative dispensation was founded on the back of strong trade unions. It assumes that trade unions will always be strong both in numbers and level of sophistication. 50% plus one was never thought off as something that would at one point be difficult to attain. But for some reasons, understandable at times, unions are finding it difficult to achieve 50% plus one as the bare minimum requirement to attain certain rights these days.
I am concerned that given this reality, our labour relations institutional arrangements will collapse if unions become small and fragmented. To sustain our systems we need trade unions that are strong, not only in terms of numbers comrades but also in the level of sophistication.
For example what credible explanation can you give to this;
It is said that the Union density in the recent years has declined from 36% in 1997 to about 24% in 2013. This means some 76% of workers are unorganised; the emergence of many new rival unions which are often set up by union officials who once were leaders of the same union they seek to destabilise.
Unions are focusing on the 24% of workers that are already organised and paying little or no attention to the 76% pool of the unorganised which often leads to tensions between and among the unions.
How do you explain the fact that today, there are 23 registered Labour Federations, 179 registered trade unions in South Africa, yet only about 18% of workers are covered in collective bargaining of one kind or the other? This means that only 2.7 million workers out of 15.1 million workers as at end 2014 benefit from collective bargaining.
Trade union leaders must be very worried about the fact that out 15.1 million people who had jobs in 2014, an average of 4.6 million of these were dependent on the Ministerial Determinations as they had no trade union to represent them.
Whilst I fully understand that sectors that are covered by Sectoral determinations are often the most difficult to organise, at least 20 years into democracy should have given enough time for unions to craft strategies to organise these workers.
So there is a potential of a 4.6 million-strong union, bigger than the memberships of all the 23 registered Labour Federations combined, just in the sectors that are covered by the Ministerial Sectoral Determinations. The sum total of this is that 12.4 million workers are either not organised or their unions are too weak to collectively bargain for them. This can’t be right Comrades.
Recently an employer organisation took the Minister of Labour to Court, challenging the extension of a collective agreement to non-parties and succeeded. It was very strange that during the court case, not a single protest march was mounted by the trade union movement to defend centralised bargaining. Trade unions did not join even consider joining the Minister to defend this Court challenge. Some Journalists and those who are anti-worker progress were having a field day in all Media platforms and not a sound was heard from the labour movement.
When the labour laws of this country come under severe attack, very few if any leaders of the trade union movement mount any meaningful defence. Often Government have to fight a lone battle.
Comrade Acting President, I have heard many analogies of the recent uneasy developments in the industrial relations, commentators citing many things as the root-causes. Some are blaming government for being on the side of the workers; others are accusing the labour laws of being too rigid, whilst others are pointing to the social and economic deficit that is inherent in our society and the slow pace of transforming the workplace as the main reasons. What is your take if I may ask?
My take is that collective bargaining is an important pillar of our labour relations dispensation and it remains one of the most important instruments to manage the inherent conflict in the industrial relations.
It is also my firm belief that collective bargaining if applied effectively is capable of addressing the challenge of inequality in our society. I have observed with a great deal of concern that the collective bargaining agenda is changing quite a bit from what it used to be. It seems to me that the agenda is now more and exclusively about wages and very little about the broader empowerment of workers on the shop floor, factory floor and mine shafts.
It may also be useful to consider making sure that each grade within the bargaining unit has some kind of direct representation in the union negotiating team. This would in a way make it possible to surface grade-specific peculiarities that may have an impact on the outcomes.
I have not seen enough or heard much about issues such as training and retraining of workers and their families, better social benefits, compliance with Employment Equity and other labour laws as being part of the engagements between the unions and the employers; it’s all about monetary issues it seems. I still have to see a protest march by workers demanding compliance with labour laws in general and employment equity in particular.
It is my view that collective bargaining can be used as an excellent platform to deal with socio economic challenges confronting this nation. These issues deserve serious attention from all and sundry.
I think we should all be very concerned about;
- The low levels of trade union density in the private sector.
- The emergence of rival unions which are often set up by union officials who once were leaders of the same union they seek to destabilise.
- The trend that the Unions are focusing on the 24% of workers that are already organised and paying little or no attention to the 76% pool of the unorganised. This often leads to tensions between and among the unions.
- Unions are quick to call workers out on strikes even in cases where a strike has no real potential of producing different results.
- Strikes which tend to be protracted yet workers are often no better off than they would have been if the strike was somewhat shorter.
- The painful disconnect between a long strike and the value of the final settlement. Why go out on strike for several weeks or months if the final settlement is a mere half a percent?
- Strikes that last longer than is necessary yet you hear union leaders bragging about how long they were able to sustain a strike with zero recognition of the post-traumatic stress that often visit members after the strike.
- The new phenomenon of workers engaging the employer directly without the involvement of their trade union, an outright recipe for anarchy.
It does not seem like the cost and benefit analysis informs the union leadership when deciding to call workers out on strike and at which point does a strike needs to be called off. It also looks like strikes are no longer considered the last resort after everything else has failed and why is that?
Well others are saying strikes have become a fashion statement and are often used as something to prove a point to rival unions, rather than a tool to get what members want. I am truly of the view that whilst it is understandable that there is some sacrifice that goes with any strike, but once the strike begins to severely hurt the very workers that it seeks to help, or when the losses far outweigh the benefits, that will be the time when the leadership needs to rethink. The trouble of course is that a strike is not like a light switch which you can turn on and off as you wish. Generally strikes may be relatively easy to turn on, but hey, they are difficult to turn off.
Comrades, we would have failed the workers if this congress does not emerge with clear responses to these issues. The 2014 ANC Election Manifesto call for the investigations into the modalities of a National minimum wage. The question of a minimum wage will generally bring back bitter memories for your union as it was this very issue that was at the centre of the difficult times in 2012.
I must commend you on the leadership and the maturity that your union demonstrated in 2012 under very trying circumstances. You readiness to consider re-opening discussions on issues that were long resolved was incredible and unprecedented. You saved the country a huge embarrassment and most importantly, you saved our labour relations institutional framework.
Your deserve a big round of applause!!!
You will know that the Deputy President of the Republic is leading the investigations into the modalities with Nedlac Social partners and the talks are at a fairly advanced stage. I am pleased to say that this task is receiving attention at the highest level possible.
Whilst our labour market institutions have done a great job to inculcate the culture of social dialogue in our DNA of doing things, there are still many challenges on the road ahead. As the challenge of poverty and inequality becomes more acute, the class contradictions become even more profound. So what you will find is that the labour market institutional forums become more and more the centre where the class contradictions play themselves out. Collective bargaining has evolved from discussing mere Rands and cents to grappling with bigger and more complex class issues.
Organised labour serves on all labour market Advisory Boards and governing bodies, yet workers do not know the decisions that are taken in these bodies. It is either the labour Reps that serve on these bodies are nominated purely on the basis of who is available, or they have no obligation to report back to union structures which nominated them.
Some of the Institutions under the stewardship of the Ministry of Labour run initiatives and programmes are meant to benefit workers, but often workers are not aware of these. Then one wonders how come when these workers have reps that serve on the very institutions that run these programmes.
Retrenchments have become a permanent feature in our labour relations space. As Government we have re-engineered the labour laws to force parties to engage in ways to mitigate the impact of retrenchments. You will recall that one of balancing act and a compromise that was made in 1996 when the LRA was revamped for the first time, was to include dismissal for operational requirements in the law.
Dismissal for operational requirements is a euphemism for retrenchments. Therefore Retrenchments are very much part of our labour relations landscape. What the law requires however is for parties to engage with a view to prevent and/or minimise the impact of any unavoidable job losses. In the case of potential large scale retrenchments, CCMA gets involved to assist the parties.
There are also active labour market interventions that are funded by the Department of Labour that could be invoked in cases of possible retrenchments. The training Lay-Off Scheme and the Productivity SA turn-around solutions are but two of the interventions that could be explored in cases of retrenchments.
It would be useful that the NUM leadership become familiar with how these programmes operate and make use of them where appropriate. I will come back to this point later.
The process to amend the Unemployment Insurance Fund is at a very advanced stage. The purpose of the proposed Amendments include, extending the period to draw unemployment benefits from eight to twelve months, extending the period within which a contributor can lodge a claim from six to twelve months, extending the scope of the fund to cover public servants and workers in the learnership programmes, creating a legal framework to promote re-employability prospects of UI beneficiaries, among other things. Once these become law they will go a long way in terms of mitigating the impact of retrenchments.
Thirdly, dealing with unemployment is not only a challenge for South Africa, but globally. There are many prescriptions that people bandied around as magic wands to the unemployment crisis. The unfortunate trend though, is that most of them suggests worker protection as a trade-off and in some cases seek to willingly create a dual labour market system. The most popular are possible exemptions of small businesses from labour laws, Employment incentives such as tax breaks, making it easy for employers to dismiss workers, young people entering the labour market for the first time not to enjoy protection at least for the first twelve months of their employment and entry wage not to be regulated.
You will notice that almost all the most popular propositions, trade-off protection as their point of departure and it is for that reason that these have been resisted by the labour movement. Whilst the various employment programmes that are championed by Government, including the Labour Activation Programme and Public Employment Services that are funded and run by the Department of labour, are yielding some results, albeit not on scale, others are arguing for a National Jobs Pact in South Africa.
In 1997, organised labour led by Cosatu, came up with a package of measures that could be considered for addressing economic development and Social equity in South Africa. It might be useful for this congress to think about what can be done over and above the current initiatives, to address unemployment from an organised labour perspective.
For example what are Mining, Construction and Energy sectors-specific initiatives that could be explored to address unemployment that will be a good starting point I guess.
To conclude; This democracy has worked for the working class of this country. Our labour law dispensation is an envy of many countries around the world. The right to organise and organisational rights that accrue as a result thereof, are among the best that trade unionists can ever want.
Let me flag the four principal legislations to illustrate the point;
- Labour Relations Act; The purpose of which is to advance economic development, social justice, labour peace and the democratisation of the workplace.
- Basic Conditions of Employment Act: which seeks to advance economic development and social justice?
- Employment Equity Act: which seeks to achieve equity in the workplace by promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment through the elimination of unfair discrimination?
- Public Employment Services Act: seeks to provide for the establishment of schemes to promote the employment of young work seekers and other vulnerable persons coupled with providing schemes to assist employees in distressed companies to retain employment.
I am advised that it was the first time in the history of the Labour Relations in South Africa that four Labour Amendment Bills were signed into law in less than three months in succession. Some commentators even suggested that there was no international precedent of such an achievement. Today, we are proud to have in our statute book, revised and progressive Labour Relations Act; Basic Conditions of Employment Act, The Employment Equity Act and the Public Employment Services Act.
Comrades these are the policy instruments that indeed are catalysts to create an environment to promote sound industrial relations.
These are extremely important in that they seek to correct the imbalances of our past. When the Freedom Charter points out that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, it means that this “belonging” must find expression economically and socially across all sections of our society. If the playing field is not equal it makes it difficult to harness the ingredients that create the glue that holds the nation together. These Amendments;
- Bring clarity to areas of the labour law that were ambiguous.
- Align our laws with the case law and address gaps that are identified by various Courts of the land from time to time.
- Bring about alignment with our international obligations as a country,
- Prohibit all abusive practices that are inherent in various forms of employment such as labour broking, and
- Address certain aspects of the sectoral determinations in order to ensure that they remain meaningful to workers in the sectors concerned.
The Department of Labour needs you in its efforts to ensure optimum compliance with our labour laws. Let’s make it our business to go out there and organise the unorganised and stop cannibalising and recycling the 24 % that is already organised, leaving 76% that must be organised.
Programme Director, Does the ANC government have a good story to tell? Yes indeed and not just one story, but many good stories.
Allow me to lift one or two points to illustrate this fact from the labour market perspective focusing on what we have achieved for the most vulnerable workers;
The International Labour Organisation is on record as having encouraged some of its member states to make South Africa one of their destinations if they want to learn about Labour Relations best practices. By the way, South Africa has to date ratified 23 ILO Conventions in total as part of the country’s commitment to address, in a true spirit of tripartism and social dialogue, modern challenges to the world of work and enhance the level of protection for the most vulnerable workers and broadly by extension, the society.
Before 1994, the influx control legislations prevented workers form seeking employment wherever they chose unless they had work seekers permits, which were made so difficult to obtain let alone the embarrassing and demeaning treating that workers had to go through. Today our citizens can seek employment where ever they choose.
Before the ANC Government took over in 1994, farm workers, domestic workers, cleaning, security workers and workers in the hospitality sectors had no-one to turn to regarding their working conditions in their respective sectors. Today that is history, through the collective efforts of this Government, workers in these sectors are at the very least, guaranteed minimum wages which are set by the Minister through Sectoral Determinations, a far cry from what was the case in the past.
Before 1994, it was not possible for domestic workers to claim unemployment benefits because they were not defined as workers and as result not registered as contributors; Today domestic workers are included and they benefit fully from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
In addition, Today Domestic Workers have;
- At least three (3) weeks annual leave on full pay in respect of each 12 months of employment.
- An amount of paid sick leave equal to the number of days the domestic worker would normally work during a six weeks period.
- Family responsibility leave of five days leave annually, for specified circumstances.
Before 1994, many workers could not afford to challenge unfair labour practices because that was costly; Today, through the CCMA; workers are not charged a cent for challenging unfair labour practices.
These are but just few reasons why the Department in general and this Government in particular, have many good stories to tell.
Our goal as reflected in our labour policies is to ensure that our society is cohesive to the extent that the inequalities, exclusion and disparities, distrust deficit and conflict are dealt with decisively.
We are of the view Comrades, that the ANC Government has placed all the necessary policy instruments in place and the only challenge which is being addressed, is how to ramp-up implementation and enforcement. We are happy though that our strategic plan, places the need to build capacity to implement and enforce our policies high up on the agenda.
As I conclude, it is important that as we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter, that we must be proud to say that the ANC Government has met all the Congress of the People’s demands and the key aspects of the 2009/14 Election Manifestos from a labour market policy perspective.
The leadership of the NUM in times of strife cannot be ignored. We therefore call on you, like you did in July 1987 at the Second Cosatu National Congress when your provided leadership that was so persuasive, the Freedom Carter ended up being adopted by Cosatu despite initial fierce opposition, to do the same in helping find solutions to the current internal Cosatu strife. We call on you to breath new lease of life to the union vibrancy of yester years. Your call for “back to basics” could not have come at a better time.
Long live NUM long live! Long live the spirit of Elijah Barayi long Live.
Amandla!!!
