Trade union federation Cosatu announced on Monday that it is all systems go for a national strike come Thursday.
The planned strike will be against unemployment, poor governance, and what it believes to be the falling living standards of workers.
In a statement on Monday, the federation said the strike is a demonstration by workers that government needs to do more to end the levels of loadshedding, cable theft, crime and corruption, wasteful expenditure, and austerity crippling the state, suffocating the economy, and further plunging workers into high levels of indebtedness and misery.
“This is also a signal to the government, the Reserve Bank, and the commercial banks that the working class can no longer afford to bear the burden of rising levels of inflation, electricity tariff hikes, and relentless and reckless increases in the repo rate,” it said.
It said it demands that all employers pay workers a living wage if they are to survive and buy the goods that the economy produces, noting that it is not acceptable that 29 years into democracy, South Africa remains the world’s most unequal society.
“Cosatu has consistently and continuously raised the frustration of workers with the government and the private sector with minimal response coming from them.
“Workers are losing hope and patience. The levels of frustration, despair, anger, poverty, indebtedness, unemployment, crime, and corruption are a ticking time bomb that the government and businesses need to deal with fast.”
It said it demands action that will address the delipidating railway infrastructure and collapse in municipalities, 36 of which routinely fail to pay their employees.
The federation’s last day of action just under a year ago did not cause significant disruption to the economy, as it was poorly attended by the majority of workers.
Last year’s protest was also backed by rival federation SA Federation of Trade Unions.
Among others, Cosatu said it wants government to:
• Raise the R350 social relief of distress grant to the food poverty line, which is R624;
• Increase the number of participants in the presidential employment stimulus programme, which employs mainly unemployed youth, to 2-million participants by February;
• To intervene and rebuild Transnet and Metro Rail; and
• To provide more resources to the SA Post Office to prevent its liquidation.
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