general secretary’s report · and the poor. let [s look at some others. pasa (the...
TRANSCRIPT
General Secretary’s Report
to
National Bargaining Conference
April 22 to 24, 2016
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The Context for the 2016 Bargaining Round ...................................................................... 4
1. The global crisis of over-accumulation ............................................................................... 4
2. Results of the crisis ........................................................................................................... 5
3. South Africa in the crisis .................................................................................................... 6
4. Let’s look at some basic data about the South African economy ......................................... 8
5. Illegal outflows of capital ................................................................................................ 12
6. Legal outflows of capital ................................................................................................. 14
7. Now I want to turn to look at wages - our wages and their wages. Let’s start with theirs: . 15
8. The South African crisis is not just a reflection of the global crisis. It is a direct result of the
neo-liberal agenda of the ANC / SACP government.................................................................. 17
9. Let’s look at the effect of the crisis on Numsa’s sectors in particular ................................. 18
10. So what are we demanding? ........................................................................................ 24
11. Now I would like to look briefly at our bargaining strategy ........................................... 27
12. This NBC must welcome the comrades from the new sectors. They are here because of
our ground-breaking decisions at our Special National Congress in 2013 .................................. 27
13. We support the challenge to the latest Eskom tariff increase ........................................ 28
14. Now let’s look at our traditional sectors: ..................................................................... 29
15. We are on the verge of launching a new federation ..................................................... 30
16. Finally, we must remember that Collective Bargaining presents a major opportunity for
the union to grow................................................................................................................... 30
17. So in summary ............................................................................................................ 31
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The Context for the 2016 Bargaining Round
1. The global crisis of over-accumulation
1.1. There is a global crisis of over-accumulation. We need to understand what that
means because it is an inevitable feature of a capitalist economy. And it is a
dominant feature of our current, global, capitalist economy.
1.2. It works very simply like this:
As we know, a capitalist economy extracts surplus value from us, the working
class. Capitalists use some of this for their own consumption, but the majority is
for re-investment in order to extract more surplus value.
So capitalism has to continue to grow in order to have places to invest the
surplus value which it extracts from us.
But a capitalist economy is unable to continue to grow forever. When it stops
growing sufficiently, there is no longer anywhere for them to invest the surplus
value.
This is what Marxists know as a crisis of over-accumulation. It takes place when
the surplus that capitalists have available to them cannot find a profitable place
to invest.
1.3. This is exactly what is happening now. It comes in two forms:
Firstly, it comes in the form of huge productive capacity which already exists. It
was built from the surplus value extracted from us. Now it cannot be profitably
used. We know about this in the steel industry. We have seen it in our own steel
industry. If we look at China, we see that it has the capacity to produce more
than one billion tons of steel. But its economy can only use half of that. So it
floods the rest of the world with its steel at rock bottom prices. The result is
closure of steel plants all over the world, including the US, the UK and of course
South Africa. The IDC reports that South Africa only uses 81.5% of its
manufacturing production capacity, down 1% in 2015.
Secondly, it comes in the form of capital which has no productive place to go to
make a profit. Again, we know that productive companies – manufacturing and
mining companies - have huge stockpiles of capital which they are not investing
in production. Instead they are finding other places to invest – shares, property,
other financial instruments. That explains why share prices on the JSE have been
rising while production has been declining. While commodity prices crashed, the
JSE boasted a 15% average annual return from 2011-15. Only 12% of the JSE is
mining shares.
1.4. The most notorious historical example of this kind of crisis was the Great
Depression of the 1930s. That was when the world witnessed one way to solve
the crisis of over-accumulation – destroy productive capacity in a global war. By
the end of the 1930s, there was no longer a crisis of over-accumulation. There
was a war which lasted 6 years and killed 45 million civilians and 15 million
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soldiers, as well as wounding a further 25 million soldiers. So, not a very good
solution.
2. Results of the crisis
2.1. We see the results of this crisis all around us:
Unemployment is the most obvious symptom. We have seen unemployment rise
not only in South Africa, but across the world.
o In 2013 global unemployment was 7.5%
o Last year it was 8%
Global GDP has risen, but so has the world’s population. So global GDP per
person (what they call per capita GDP) has fallen. In 2014 it was $16,700 per
person. In 2015 it was $15,800.
China’s GDP, which has been driving much of the rest of the world’s economies,
has been slowing down since 2013:
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Banks and financial institutions have crashed or come close to crashing. So
capitalist states have bailed them out and taken over their unmanageable debt.
The result is that public debt has increased massively.
Someone has to pay for the increasing levels of debt. The result has been
austerity – there have been cuts in public expenditure to reduce the debt. Cuts
in public expenditure overwhelmingly hurt the poor – the rich buy their own,
private services. They don’t need public services.
3. South Africa in the crisis
3.1. South Africa is suffering in particular from this crisis because our economy has
remained dependent on the sale of minerals.
In a crisis such as this, demand for minerals declines very sharply.
o You can see on the screen the steep decline in the volume of coal produced
in 2015
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o Platinum mining production was very low in 2014, because of the protracted
strike. But even in 2015 the levels are way below the 2011 levels.
We have seen this in the dramatic drop in mineral prices. For example coal has
dropped from nearly 140 dollars a ton in 2011 to under 60 dollars a ton this
year.
We know that when demand declines, prices also decline.
The capitalist economy always responds in the same way: reduce output in
order to restore profitability.
So we are seeing the shutting of productive capacity, in mining and downstream
processing and manufacturing.
Look at Anglo American Corporation. It was Africa’s largest company for the past
century. The share price today on the London Stock Exchange values the
company at 8% of what it was worth in 2008. Or look at Glencore which has
dropped to less than 20% of its value. Poor Ivan Glasenburg, the CEO, is
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experiencing real suffering: his shares used to be worth 10 billion dollars. Now
they are worth a mere $1.7 billion.
When there is a decline in mining, manufacturing also suffers.
3.2. The ANC government wasted a huge opportunity during the years of the 2000s.
Until 2008, the world experienced what has been called the ‘super cycle’ for
mineral production. Production increased enormously and profitability increased
with it.
In 2012, we reported to this Central Committee the profits of the 3 largest
platinum mining companies at the time: Lonmin, Implats and Anglo Platinum.
Between 2006 and 2011, these 3 companies made a profit of 160 billion Rand.
This was the slide we showed you then.
That profit should have been used to capitalize industrialization based on the
beneficiation of South Africa minerals. Instead, the ANC government removed
exchange controls and allowed the companies to list overseas. The result was
that these super profits were poured into the pockets of overseas shareholders.
4. Let’s look at some basic data about the South African economy
4.1. Firstly growth: You can see from the chart on the screen how GDP has declined
over the last 3 years: from 2.9% in 2013 to 0.6% last year. In 2013, the DBSA said
that we need a GDP growth rate of 10% or more every year to meet the New
Growth Path's target of 5-million jobs by 2020. Instead of moving towards 10%,
the ANC / SACP government has taken the economy backwards.
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4.2. Secondly inflation: at the last NBC in 2013, CPI was 5.9%. At this NBC CPI is 6.3%.
But we know that CPI is not a true measure of inflation, especially for the working class
and the poor. Let’s look at some others. PACSA (The Pietermaritzburg Agency for
Community Social Action) produces a Food Price Barometer. According to that
barometer:
In 3 months, from November 2015 to January 2016, the price of their basic food
basket increased by 9%.
The year-on-year increase for Jan 2015 to Jan 2016 was 14.6.
Some of the biggest increases have come in some of the most basic foods:
o Mealie meal 21.2%
o Samp 36.2%
o Cooking oil 38.8%
o Potatoes 120%
4.3. Thirdly the currency: the Rand lost 33% of its value during 2015. On January 1
2015 one Rand was worth nearly 11 US cents. By the end of the year it was worth
less than 7 cents.
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In the 48 hours immediately after Zuma fired Nene, an estimated 28 billion
dollars’ worth of local financial assets evaporated, as investors fled.
Financial institutions suffered the worst. First National Bank, for example, lost
10% of its stock market value.
The advantage of a weaker rand is that it makes exports cheaper and therefore
more attractive. The South African economy has been unable to make use of this
advantage because of the destruction of manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, of
course, imports are much more expensive. That includes large amounts of maize
because of the drought. It also includes those components that must be
imported for OEMs.
4.4. Fourthly the debt: we reported at the 2013 NBC that SA’s foreign debt had risen
from 25 billion dollars in 1994 to 135 billion dollars in mid-2013.
If you look at South Africa’s debt today in US dollars, the situation seems slightly
less bad than in 2013. The debt has fallen slightly to 124 billion dollars by the
end of 2015.
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But we have to remember that the value of the Rand has fallen. We have to pay
off our debt in the Rand that we earn. And the debt in Rands is much worse –
from R1.3 billion in 2013 to R1.9 billion at the end of 2015. That’s an increase of
49%.
4.5. Fifthly, the investment strike:
Production companies are still holding more than 1 trillion Rand in non-
productive investments in the finance sector.
This is money that should be invested to produce goods and jobs which South
Africa needs.
It lies idle because, as you can see from the slide, companies can make more
money investing in financial instruments than in production.
4.6. Number six, the drought:
On top of these fundamental issues, the severe drought there has been a
massive decline in agricultural production:
o It fell by over 8% in 2015
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o It fell by over 14% in the last quarter
o It led to a loss of 37,000 jobs in the last quarter of 2015 alone
The impact of the drought will be dramatically worsened by structural problems in
the economy. The weak Rand is a direct result of the failure of the ANC / SACP
government to restructure the economy. As a result of the weak Rand, the cost of
importing the 3.8 million tons of maize we will need in 2016 will be much higher,
which in turn will increase the debt, damage the balance of payments and cause
further weakness in the Rand. This government is leading us on a steep and slippery
slope to junk status and beyond.
5. Illegal outflows of capital
5.1. Some of you will have heard recently about the so-called ‘Panama Papers’. A
massive 11.5 million confidential documents from a law firm in Panama were
exposed on the internet. Panama is a tax haven. Tax havens are countries which
are different from other countries in two ways:
There is a very low tax, or even zero tax, on incomes, including company income
There is a system which protects the secrecy of all financial transactions
5.2. Big corporations use a number of different methods to export their income to
these tax havens so that they pay no tax on it. Here are just two of them:
They “sell” the product from a South African subsidiary to a subsidiary in a tax
haven, at a very low price. Then their subsidiary in the tax haven sells the
product to the real customer at a much higher price. All the profit comes to the
company in the tax haven – and they pay no tax on it. Research has shown that
De Beers illegally exported 2.83 billion dollars like this between 2004 and 2012.
Another way they avoid tax is that a South African subsidiary pays a lot of money
in unnecessary sales commission and marketing fees to another subsidiary in a
tax haven. All this money is not taxed.
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5.3. The 2015 Global Financial Integrity Report says that the amount of money in the
world which escapes tax in these ways is 1.1 trillion dollars. That’s 15.6 trillion
Rand. Just to make that picture clearer, SARS collected 830 billion Rand in the last
tax year. So the money that is escaping tax in the world is equivalent to more than
15 years of South Africa’s tax revenue.
5.4. The GFI Report puts South Africa at Number 7 in the world for illicit capital
outflows. It calculates that we lost 1.6 trillion rand between 2004 and 2013.
Wits university economist, Seeraj Mohamed calculated that in 2007 23% of
South Africa’s GDP left the country illegally.
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GDP in 2007 was nearly two trillion Rand. So that means that 460 billion rand
left the country illegally.
If that 460 billion Rand was taxed at the company tax rate of 29%, SARS would
receive an extra R133 billion for SARS. That would pay for free education for all
students and a lot more.
6. Legal outflows of capital
6.1. It’s not just illegal capital outflows that are the problem.
6.2. We are always being told that we need more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). But
we must look at the balance between the FDI that comes into South Africa and
the profits and dividends which go out.
6.3. We can see from this graph that every month, the balance is that capital flows out
of the country. The amount of profits and dividends leaving the country is greater
than the amount of FDI that comes in.
6.4. In 2014 and the first half of 2015 the balance was that 806 billion Rand left the
South African economy.
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7. Now I want to turn to look at wages - our wages and their wages. Let’s start with
theirs:
7.1. These are South Africa’s top wage earners for 2015:
CEO Company Total Salary
Alan Clark SAB Miller R152 million
Andrew Mackenzie BHP Billiton R113.4 million
Julian Roberts Old Mutual R90.6 million
Mark Cutifani Anglo American R80 million
Nicandro Durante BAT R77 million
Ian Hawsworth Capco R11.1 million
Johan van der Merwe Sanlam R62.4 million
David Constable Sasol R52 million
Whitey Basson Shoprite R50.1 million
Johan Rupert Richemont R49.4 million
Mark Cutifani’s wages increased from R16.8 million in 2012 to R80 million in
2015. That’s 376%.
David Constable of Sasol didn’t do so well. His increase was only from R31.8
million to R52 million. A mere 64%.
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7.2. Meanwhile, these are the median 2015 wage settlements in different sectors,
according to LRS. Between 6% and 10%
Industry Median increase % by
industry Jan to June
2015
Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing 7.4
Community, social and personal services 6
Construction 8.3
Electricity, gas and water 8.5
Finance, insurance, real estate and business services 8.3
Manufacturing 8
Mining and quarrying 10
Transport, storage and communication 7.8
Wholesale and retail trade and accommodation 7.3
7.3. What you see below is why we talk about South Africa’s apartheid wage structure
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8. The South African crisis is not just a reflection of the global crisis. It is a direct result of
the neo-liberal agenda of the ANC / SACP government
8.1. The ANC / SACP government has created our own, self-inflicted crisis.
They failed to transform the economy. The result is that South Africa is still
dependent on export of unprocessed minerals.
They removed exchange controls and allowed companies to list overseas. As we
have seen, this has facilitated the export of profits instead of their re-investment
in South Africa.
They hollowed out the state, allowing companies to make profit out of basic
services, and stimulating corruption
Through the Reserve Bank, they imposed high interest rates, which they had to
do because they removed exchange controls. This prevented economic growth,
which we have seen in our appalling GDP figures.
They enslaved themselves to the ratings agencies, promoting the interests of
global capital, not the needs of the people.
They required Eskom to operate on commercial lines, instead of seeing cheap
electricity as a way of promoting industrialization. An ordinary person is paying
336% more today than in 2007 - if you paid R100 in 2007, you will be paying
R436 today.
They have continued to promote the interests of the Minerals Energy Finance
Complex against the interests of the people. So, for example, both the state and
Transnet are investing hundreds of billions of rand on improving the
infrastructure so that even more minerals can be exported even more
efficiently:
o The state is investing in improving the rail line from Mpumalanga to Richards
Bay, to increase the amount of coal exported. Meanwhile, the price of coal
has dropped from R180 a tonne to R50 a tonne because of the global crisis.
So the railway line will not be fully used.
o Transnet is investing in rolling stock to carry the minerals
o The State is investing 250 billion Rand to convert the old Durban airport to a
container terminal for ships. Again, this is unnecessary infrastructure
expenditure. The existing capacity in Durban is sufficient. But of course huge
infrastructure projects are rich soil for the reaping of bribes and incentives.
They constantly praise themselves for all this infrastructure spending. But the truth
of the matter is that a lot of it is either unnecessary of directly against the interests
of building a vibrant manufacturing economy. The reason they promote
infrastructure spend is that these huge contracts are the best targets for looting and
corruption.
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9. Let’s look at the effect of the crisis on Numsa’s sectors in particular
I will start by looking at manufacturing in general. I will then show you figure for Numsa’s
sectors. For each sector, I will show production volumes.
9.1. Manufacturing in general
You can see from this graph that the volume of manufacturing production rose
slightly from the depths after the 2008 crisis. But it has stagnated over the last 3
years.
The value of manufacture goods imported into South Africa increased by 9.5% in
2015. 37% of imported manufactured goods came from China.
9.2. Paper and paper products
Production has stagnated over the last 3 years
Employment has dropped dramatically
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9.3. Base chemicals
Production volumes have increased
But employment levels have dropped substantially. Less people producing more
goods!
9.4. Rubber and rubber products
Production is down
And employment is down too
9.5. Plastic and plastic products
Production is down here too
And employments is down too
9.6. Glass and glass products
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Production dropped dramatically in 2014 and has not recovered
Employment has continued to decline
9.7. Basic iron and steel products (that’s ferro-alloys and steel)
Production volumes dropped dramatically last year
Employment is dropping, as we know from bitter experience at Highveld Steel,
for example
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9.8. Basic non-ferrous metal products
Again there is a steep decline in 2015
Employment follows production downwards
9.9. Metal products excluding machinery
Production peaked at the end of 2013 and has been in decline since
Employment levels are down too
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9.10. Machinery and equipment
The same story – down in 2015
And employment down with it
9.11. Electrical machinery
Interestingly, 2015 was a highpoint for production volumes
And employment levels grew in 2014 before declining again in 2015
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9.12. TV, Radio and Communication Equipment
Along with electrical machinery, 2015 was a year of growth back to 2014 levels
Jobs were lost in 2014, but stabilized in 2015
9.13. Motor vehicles and components
Aside from the sudden drop in 2013, from our strike action, production has got
back to 2012 levels, although there was a decline in 2015
Employment climbed in 2014 before declining steeply in 2015
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9.14. Other transport equipment (railways and aircraft)
Growth is static
Employment grew slightly in 2015 after falling in 2014
10. So what are we demanding?
10.1. From this situation, our analysis remains the same. There is no neoliberal solution
to the crisis of the South African economy and the suffering of the people that is
the result.
10.2. The only solution is massive state intervention in the economy, under working
class, democratic control.
10.3. The steel industry must be nationalized under democratic workers’ control:
There is no future for the South African steel industry as a small piece of a global
corporation. If ArcelorMittal remains part of the global ArcelorMittal
corporation, it will remain a servant of the needs of that corporation. It will only
produce what is profitable for that corporation. If ArcelorMittal can make steel
cheaper somewhere else in the world, it will close its South African plants.
The PIC / IDC must buy out ArcelorMittal South Africa at a heavily reduced price
because of its limited commercial value in the current situation
10.4. Meanwhile there must be tariff protection and anti-dumping measures. In
particular the steel industry needs protection from dumping of Chinese steel. The
Chinese steel industry is effectively subsidized by a variety of factors:
The value of the Yuan is kept artificially low, which makes the steel cheaper
outside China
There is no union organization to demand and achieve decent wages and
conditions
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There is a lack of measures to protect the environment against pollution and
destruction
We demand an immediate moratorium on all steel imports
10.5. The South African manufacturing economy must be protected so that we can
reverse de-industrialisation:
The system of ‘designating’ products for local production must be massively
expanded.
All products for basic needs must be produced in South Africa
Numsa’s number 1 demand in 2016 will be that component suppliers that have
been relocated to Lesotho and Botswana must be brought back into SA.
o Government must ensure that this happens through local content
requirements
o OEMs must make sure this happens by refusing to buy from component
manufacturers who have relocated
A review of the APDP can’t just be about the OEMs. It must achieve 2 things:
o It must support the South African component sector to increase local content
o It must guarantee a living wage to all sections of the industry
MIBCO rates are starvation wages. Captains of industry must work with NUMSA
and MIBCO to determine an appropriate living wage.
Import tariffs must be used to protect vulnerable industries. These tariffs should
include a requirement that importing companies re-invest in the South African
economy
10.6. Eskom must be decommercialised and directed to its proper function of producing
cheap electricity for the working class and the poor as well as for industry.
Electricity is a pre-requisite for industrial production. We must use it to create a
competitive advantage.
10.7. South Africa must move rapidly away from the carbon economy and champion a
just transition to a green economy. In order to move to a green economy we need
to do 4 things:
Cover the world with renewable energy, like wind and solar power, to make all
our electricity.
Switch from cars to buses and trains and run almost all transport on renewable
energy.
Insulate and convert all homes and buildings to use less energy and to heat and
cool using renewable energy.
Convert and redesign industry to use less energy and to use renewable
electricity wherever possible.
A programme such as this will create a huge number of new jobs – 120 million new
jobs a year globally for 20 years, according to one estimate. Using nuclear fuel to
produce electricity will produce almost no jobs at all, and will produce electricity
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that is far too expensive for people to use. Already the huge increases in Eskom
electricity prices have resulted in many people going back to paraffin and wood
because they can’t afford electricity.
This process must include a socially, worker owned renewable energy which:
Is collectively owned under democratic control
Includes a mix of energy parastatals, cooperatives and municipal-owned entities
Operates on the basis of a social mandate, not profit
Gets priority on the grid
As the French Marxist, Michel Lowy, said:
“The key ecological issues – such as the catastrophic process of global warming – are
intimately linked with the logic of the capitalist system. The expansion of capital, and
the destruction of the environment, are ‘combined’, and inseparable. Therefore, a
struggle to save the climate has to become an anti-capitalist combat; otherwise it is
doomed to failure.”
10.8. South Africa must pursue a wage-led growth strategy. We reject the false idea that
high wages damage the economy. On the contrary, high wages stimulate economic
growth, which we have seen is sadly lacking. This wage-led growth must include
immediate implementation of a living minimum wage.
10.9. There must be an end to the investment strike by South African capital. Prescribed
assets must be introduced for investors to ensure socially acceptable investment
patterns.
10.10. Exchange controls must immediately be imposed and interest rates lowered
to stimulate economic growth.
We cannot allow profits extracted from the social surplus to be exported into
the pockets of foreign shareholders.
It may be time to reinstate the Financial Rand of the 1980s. Under that system
there were two exchange rates. Investments made in South Africa by non-
residents could only be sold for financial rand. This was effectively a tax on
exporting capital and prevented the large scale export of capital that we have
seen since 1994.
10.11. There must be transformation of land ownership and use. ‘Willing seller, willing
buyer’ is simply a way of making no significant change. We must move away from
corporate agriculture and towards cooperative land use.
10.12. There must be a national housing strategy which covers all those who need
housing.
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At the moment a significant number of our members get no support for their
housing needs: they are deemed not poor enough to receive a RDP house. But
they are not wealthy enough to get a loan from the bank.
Until we succeed in nationalizing them, the commercial banks must fund a state
housing bank to give subsidized loans for housing.
10.13. The Reserve Bank must be nationalised and used to target employment creation
not inflation
10.14. There must be price controls and subsidies for basic goods and services
11. Now I would like to look briefly at our bargaining strategy
11.1. At our Special National Congress in 2013, we agreed to move towards value chain
organizing: that means organising all workers involved in making a product, from
beginning to end. As part of this, we are trying to persuade the employers to
move to a new structure which will have auto, components and tyre and rubber
under one umbrella organization.
11.2. We are proposing 8 sectors:
Automotive Manufacturing Industry
Motor vehicle and fuel sales services
State owned enterprises
Metal, steel and engineering
Mining
Chemicals and plastics
Goods and passenger transport
Security and cleaning services
11.3. Each of these sectors would have chambers for their specific industries
12. This NBC must welcome the comrades from the new sectors. They are here because of
our ground-breaking decisions at our Special National Congress in 2013
12.1. We will be wrestling to make sure that all the new sectors are organised. They must
get fair wage increases. They must feel the benefit of being Numsa members.
12.2. This is where we stand at the moment in membership in the new sectors:
Transnet: 10,000
SAA: 500
SAA technical and maintenance: 560
Prasa: 1000
SASOL: 700
Mining: 2,000
Road freight and logistics: 5,000
Security and cleaning
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Canteens: 500
Landscaping 200
Construction: 5,000
Bus 2,300 including
o Greyhound 183
o Autopax 786
o Golden Arrow 400
o Putco 524
o Algoa
12.3. There are a number of key strategic issues for us in State Owned Enterprises:
Firstly we must demand transparency of all contracts. The price of the contracts
and the companies involved must be public knowledge. This is the only way to
fight against perceived and real cronyism.
Secondly, we are working with all worker-controlled unions to make sure that
procurement is local and to create jobs.
Thirdly, we will also demand that we must be represented in SOE boards.
Fourthly, we call on all SOEs to stop victimising workers for belonging to Numsa.
This is a political witch hunt. They must grant us organisational rights. Transnet
has dismissed 3,000 fixed-term contract workers as part of this witch hunt. We
condemn this and we demand that workers must get their rights from the
amended LRA and be made permanent. We are demanding an urgent meeting.
Meanwhile, the CCMA will schedule arbitration on organisational rights for
Transnet.
We have noted changes of management and leadership in Transnet.
12.4. We have made significant gains in the new sectors:
We are already recognised in SAA and SAA Technical and we are in wage
negotiations.
We have secure organizational rights at Glencore and have elected shop
stewards at most of the 12 mines. We have 2,000 members
13. We support the challenge to the latest Eskom tariff increase
13.1. A number of companies have come together to interdict Eskom’s 9% increase.
They include Agni steels, Shatterprufe, Borbet, Sovereign Foods and Autocast.
They are applicants together with the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.
13.2. As Numsa, we reject this increase and any further increase. We also reject
Eskom’s threat to sell the Eskom finance company which currently gives low
housing interest rates for workers.
13.3. Eskom’s increases have caused serious problems for smelters, because electricity
is a very big cost for ferro-alloys companies. They are paying 80 cents per kilowatt
hour for electricity, while in China the cost is around 36 cents per kilowatt hour
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The ferro-alloys industry employs 200 000 people directly. More than 10 000
jobs have been lost
Scaw Metals lost 1,000 jobs last year; the City of Johannesburg charges 117%
above Eskom rates, and these are the rates that Scaw must pay
Production from Assmang has moved to Malaysia, resulting in the closing of
Assmang Machadodorp
13.4. A steel crisis task team was set up last year and organised labour and business
worked together to lobby government
This was successful in winning tariffs for some products and other interventions
It was able to stem job losses: there were a lot fewer workers retrenched, with
no retrenchments at ArcelorMittal for example.
The task team has agreed on demands to be presented to government including:
o A special dispensation for electricity prices for smelters
o A maximum municipal markup for big business
o A ban on export of chrome ore and scrap metal
13.5. Eskom management has tried to tell us that it has successfully dealt with load
shedding. This is simply not true. The drop in demand for electricity comes from
companies closing down, including smelters. Eskom has lost 11 billion Rand in
sales.
14. Now let’s look at our traditional sectors:
14.1. In the Auto sector:
2016 will be a difficult year. Workers want housing and industry medical aid as
well as an improvement on wages.
We are ready to engage as early as possible. We are not looking for a strike but
we anticipate that the employers may drag us there.
14.2. In the tyre sector:
As well as a wage increase, we have 3 other key demands:
o Firstly, effective measures from government to prevent tyre dumping. We
must also demand that the OEMs choose to source tyres from local
manufacturers.
o Secondly, an end to the system of ‘red-circling’. The total number of
employees in the industry is close to 7,000. 38% of these workers are red-
circled. This means that any increase they receive is not added onto the wage
for the purpose of calculation of benefits. This has been a problem for many
years and we will have to deal with and resolve it in a decisive manner.
o Thirdly, representation of salaried staff: at the moment they have no
representation and their increases are consistently below inflation
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14.3. In the Motor Sector
As I have said, our number one priority will be to stop and reverse the export of jobs
to other SADC countries such as Lesotho and Botswana and that is why it has
become urgent that we must promote worker to worker contact, union to union
contact. Who knows? Maybe Numsa and the rest of unions in the southern region
may come together in a regional union.
We will also resist the employers’ attempts to reduce wage levels to MIBCO rates.
The review of APDP currently under way, at the centre of it must be to cushion
component employers and revisit supply measures to support and protect small and
medium-sized, vulnerable companies.
15. We are on the verge of launching a new federation
15.1. We followed our Special National Congress resolution and did everything possible
to rescue the federation as a militant, independent federation. But we ended up
being expelled. We were expelled for consistently challenging the neoliberal
agenda and the massive destruction of jobs.
15.2. We have been vindicated by the consistent position we have taken. We have
always made clear that if you do not nationalize the commanding heights of the
economy, you are bound to fail. And when you fail, you will be bound to continue
and intensify the exploitation and oppression of the black working class.
15.3. The Numsa NEC finally agreed that there was nothing more we could do. There
was no turning back. It was time to begin to build a new federation.
15.4. On 30th April there will be a Workers Summit. We must move quickly to
consolidate the unity of the working class in militant action.
15.5. On Sunday the Special CC will also endorse the road map to the summit.
16. Finally, we must remember that Collective Bargaining presents a major opportunity for
the union to grow
16.1. As we win gains for our members, other workers see the real benefit of the union
16.2. We must remember our target of 400,000 members by National Congress at the
end of this year
16.3. Collective bargaining is a big opportunity to grow the union; we must use this
opportunity
16.4. We must recruit in the value chain. That includes our traditional sectors who must
recruit in their value chain. We are recommitting all shop stewards in all sectors to
deliver quality service and to recruit in the value chain.
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17. So in summary
17.1. The economy is in bad shape, both globally and in South Africa
17.2. But we are adamant that workers must not pay for this crisis which we did not
create.
17.3. The employers in our sectors must make real offers to settle. We will not
compromise our members.
17.4. We understand the state of the economy, but that doesn’t mean that we will just
lie down.
End the Economy for the 1%.
Forward to a living wage for all Numsa members, Forward