Message for the 22nd Anniversary of Trade Unionism within the Criminal Justice! Tomorrow POPCRU will turn 22 Years! Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union [POPCRU] was established on the 05th of November 2011 in which Trade Unionism was ushered within the Criminal Justice. The struggle for Police Labour Rights in South Africa, with POPCRU being formed in 1989 had Two Main Objectives; Its first objective was to represent and speak for those Police Officers, who felt compromised by having to enforce law and order in an extremely unjust society. Doing this job often meant employing highly repressive means against the most disempowered and impoverished members of South Africa’s communities. Most early supporters of POPCRU came from these same disadvantaged communities. With this objective in mind, POPCRU viewed itself as an organization promoting civil rights and social justice-hence the name, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union…the rest is history or her-story! Many people were also arrested, tortured, beaten, harassed, dismissed, threatened and some unfortunately killed for their belief in having this voice we are proud of today..is it not worth celebrating? The second objective [at that time] was to collectively represent police and prison officials in regard to industrial and work-related matters. This was desperately needed as police and prison officials had no collective or individual labour or civil rights. And later, we included Traffic officials employed across Nine Provincial Departments and we are still lobbying strongly for Nationalization of these Departments, to bargain for uniform standards for all, improved living standards and job security… The struggle continues. Recently we have won the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration [CCMA] Award that these workers may not be declared Essential Services Employees willy-nilly. A remarkable achievement for the protection of the ‘right to strike’, in terms of the Labour Relations Act [LRA], Section 64[1][a], of 1998 as amended. The above exposition is important to those who still have doubts on what Trade Unions are about and those who think Trade Unions is about trashing the streets and challenging power mongers! Trade Unions is about a genuine fight for Social Justice, a struggle for respect for Labour Rights which are Human Rights as per the International Labour Organizations stipulations and/or Conventions. This is a continuous effort by COSATU Affiliated Trade Unions to cementing Trade Unionism within the public service, and building strong and vibrant Trade Union Movement in the Region in particular and beyond. And the former, late ANC Secretary General, Cde Walter Sisulu once said in 1989 at the height of a hard struggle for recognition and representation of our members in the corridors of power that ‘I hope POPCRU will develop and snow ball’. He added that, ’I hope more and more policemen will join this union for human rights for police because they are also humans, who need their rights protected like everybody’s’. Today we have witnessed a growth unsurpassed in the history of COSATU as this was alluded to at the recent 05th COSATU Central Executive Committee Meeting at Midrand this year in June. And POPCRU was recorded to have ‘registered the largest percentage jump in membership with 33,99% growth’, and this is testimony that trade unions have evolved to become the shield of workers at the workplace. Karl Marx once argued that ‘of all classes that stand to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry’. So for us as POPCRU, the formations of Trade Unions were an important step in the formation of a Class, with a common Class Consciousness. And such includes pledging solidarity with Workers of the world. POPCRU has evolved as a heritage within the Criminal Justice which must be preserved for future generations. Forward with celebration of the 22nd Anniversary! Forward with the Working Class Hegemony! Issued by: POPCRU National Office 01 Marie Road Auckland Park 2006
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