The Congress of South African Trade Unions wishes its affiliated union, the South African Democratic Workers Union (SADTU) a successful National General Council. The National General Council is currently taking place in at Emperors Palace in Kempton.
This important meeting is taking place at a time of a heightened offensive against the workers and working class in general. We hope that delegates will use this opportunity to grapple with issues that face workers in the education sector, the trade union movement, the country in general.
Since 1994, SADTU has pioneered the struggle for centralised collective bargaining in all sectors where the union is organised which resulted amongst others, in the establishment of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), General Public Service Sectoral Bargaining Council (GPSSBC), and radical improvements in the conditions of service and equity in wages and benefits of public sector workers, particularly for black-African workers and black women workers.
This struggle to advance workers immediate economic interests has been accompanied by the struggle to defend the public sector in the face of employers’ threats to privatise, to “right-size”, to outsource and to basically incapacitate the public sector from playing its democratic and transformative role.
The federation expects the union to lead in defending collective bargaining, saving jobs, and improving health and safety in the workplace. The fight against budget cuts also remains a big issue as we approach the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement the end of this month. COSATU also expects all its unions and members to prioritise the fight against patriarchy and women exploitation.
We wish all the delegates productive discussions and hope they will continue the union’s tradition of innovative and discerning analysis of issues facing the labour movement and our education system.
Long Live SADTU! Long Live!
Issued by COSATU
Sizwe Pamla (Cosatu National Spokesperson)
Tel: 011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794