COSATU Satisfied with Strike Turnout Amy Musgrave, Group Labour Editor, IOL, Johannesburg, 7 October 2016 Tens of thousands of workers took to the streets on Friday in support of COSATU's mass action campaign for decent work and improved public transport. COSATU spokesman Sizwe Pamla told Independent Media that the federation was satisfied with the turnout and that workers were standing up for their rights. The one-day strike, in support of International Decent Work Day, saw marches across the country. All out All of COSATU's affiliates came out in support of the protest, including the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union, which said reports indicated that most of its members supported the strike. In the Free State's Phuthaditjhaba area, 93% of clothing workers at 21 factories stayed away from work. "In what should be interpreted as a strong call for decent work, thousands of clothing workers in north-eastern Free State are out on strike today, shutting down the industry in that area," the union said. While Phuthaditjhaba is an important part of South Africa's clothing manufacturing sector, almost all clothing workers are paid sub-minimum wages and work under deplorable conditions. The area is known for exploitation and sweatshops. In Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal, more than 2 000 clothing workers joined the strike "Most of these workers toil in appalling sweatshop conditions, earning bitterly low wages. On International Decent Work Day today, they raise their voices strongly against poverty wages being paid by employers in Newcastle," SACTWU said. Pamla said that although the strike was protected, there were a number of instances where workers had been intimidated not to join the protest. He said COSATU's legal team was looking into the matter. Encouraging However, on the whole, the federation was pleased. "For us this is encouraging... and we are focusing on issues that affect workers. This is the start of rebuilding the radicalisation of workers and going forward we will see more of this," he said. The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that it has made a number of proposals on COSATU's demands to the relevant authorities. It said it respected the rights of individuals or organisations to protest. "We urge the organisers of the protest action to respect the right of non-protesting workers. We also urge them to make every effort to avoid violent protests that can lead to loss of life, and also damage to property," Sacci said. LABOUR BUREAU From: http://www.iol.co.za/business/news/strike-cosatu-satisfied-with-turnout-2077 396 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14242 (20161007) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/000c01d220c7%2459f847f0%240de8d7d0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
