Cosatu and NUM back Numsa’s strike action

Striking National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) affiliates waited outside the Metal and Engineering Industry Bargaining Council building to hand over their memorandum.

July 1, 2014

SIMONE SAMUELS 1 minute read

Numsa members waved union-branded banners and posters as well as sticks as they sang and danced through the CBD.

A sea of red has swept through central Joburg this morning as Numsa members made their way to their industry’s bargaining council.

About 5 000 Numsa affiliates, wearing red T-shirts bearing the union’s logo and carrying placards that read, “Marikana Season II” and “Down with slavery wages”, marched through the inner city singing songs; some of them rebuking their employers.

The mass action in Joburg is one of many countrywide marches as the union undertakes an indefinite national strike after wage negotiations reached a deadlock.

According to Caxton journalist Afrika Mdolomba, who was on the scene, the march has thus far been controlled and there had been no incidents.

About 5000 people were participating in the march from Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown to the Metal and Engineering Bargaining Council in Anderson Street.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said that they support the national strike by Numsa in the metals and engineering sectors.

“The Num support Numsa in their fight to close the apartheid wage gap, fighting for equity in the workplace, and demanding a living wage… It is important for the working class to continue fighting for better salaries and better working conditions,” it said in a statement.

“Cosatu declared its total solidarity with the 220 000 members of Numsa… The union’s demands are fully in accord with Cosatu’s long-standing campaigns for a living wage and better working conditions,” the union said in a statement.

Cosatu referred to Numsa’s demands as “reasonable”.

Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi has joined the march and was welcomed with songs and members chanting, “Vavi Vavi Vavi Vavi!”

Earlier, Cosatu threatened that its members would down tools in support of Numsa’s strike action should a settlement not be reached.

“Cosatu calls upon all its affiliates to give the strike their full backing and to be ready to mobilise solidarity action should a settlement not be reached,” the union said.

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