Beware: Unions vow to bring the city to a standstill!
Cosatu to embark on a mass action campaign to address issues facing the poor.
The Confederation of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Gauteng has vowed to bring the City of Johannesburg to a standstill ahead of the October 7 planned strike action.
The strike action which is initiated by the central executive committee is aimed at raising a number of issues affecting the working class and the poor in the country.
Top of the list of issues to be raised are inequalities, unemployment, and poverty.
“The government has over the past years introduced various policies to deal with these challenges but they still remain stubbornly high, Cosatu’s Dumisani Dakile said.
“In our view, this is as a result of the wrong policies that government keeps on introducing and the failing of adequately addressing the root causes of these challenges. The root causes of our challenges remain the legacy of Colonialism and Apartheid.”
The federation has also pledged support to the student movements in their call for free and compulsory education for all.
Workers are expected to join the student march to the Department of Finance and the Chamber of Commerce on October 14 in a bid to get businesses to fund education.
“The current funding model does not help and assist the country to achieve a free and compulsory education in our country. The current role of business in funding education in our country is a joke,” said Dakile.
Cosatu is planning on undertaking the mass action campaign on a monthly basis focusing on different aspects such as housing, national minimum wage and the National Health Insurance to mention just a few.
