Workers strike over worsening working conditionsStriking workers employed by a labour broker at Hendler and Hart are not young. Many are women and the majority have been working at the factory for more than six years, some even 15 years.
Some used to be permanent workers until they were retrenched several years ago. Instead of saying goodbye to them forever, management recalled some of them through limited duration contracts. It knew they were cleaners, operators and oilers, that they were trained and could do the job easily.
Join the campaign against precarious work
Hendler and Hart are not the only workers suffering from the downgrading of their conditions. Across the world, workers tell the same stories.
From September 30 to October 7, 2008, the International Metalworkers Federation and other global trade unions will run a campaign against precarious work (ie workers employed by labour brokers or on temporary contracts).
This forms part of an international campaign spearheaded by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on October 7 to demand decent work.Actions will include pickets, demonstrations. Find out more from your local Numsa office.
The situation for workers was not ideal. Workers told Numsa News of a contract worker that had lost three fingers when he was injured on duty but has still never received compensation.
Even so workers became used to the temporary nature of their short month contracts. Their employer was still the same and they could approach him if there was a problem.But since early this year management told workers that it wanted to move them all to a labour broker.
Workers were against this. But on April 11 they suddenly received a pay slip from the labour broker.
Numsa declared a dispute and as Numsa News went to print, they had been on a legal strike for a month."We don’t like the labour broker because we don’t get benefits anymore," workers told Numsa News.
"Before when we were on contract, we could see on our payslip we got bonus and leave pay. But now we don’t see that anymore.""If we have a problem, there is no-one to talk to. We don’t know where the labour broker's office is.
We have no safety shoes, and if you are sick one day, you will just lose your job. There is no paid sick leave for us."Workers were adamant – "We don’t want the labour broker anymore, he is wasting our time and stealing our money!"But this 4-week strike is not just a strike of non-permanent workers.
Permanent workers are striking alongside the temporary workers to demand a better life for their comrades.As Numsa News went to print, workers were still coming to work to strike.
The company had put a proposal to bring in a third party to assist in the process of finding a resolution to the dispute.
"We want to push that a senior person from the Bargaining Council be brought in to help discussions," says Jacob Xilongo, Numsa Ekurhuleni organiser.Numsa salutes the struggle of Hendler and Hart workers – an injury to one IS an injury to all! Unity IS strength!
GUD Filters workers make historyGUD Filters workers have stamped their mark on Numsa Western Cape history.
Their 6-week long strike is the longest in the region's history. Workers went back to work on Monday August 11 with a commitment from management to negotiate the hated disciplinary code.
Over the last three years, 105 workers have resigned because of it.Workers put the blame on new management that took over the factory three years ago. "We've dealt with Numsa in Port Elizabeth, now we'll deal with Numsa in Cape Town," they happily told workers when they arrived.
"Atlantis is such a depressed place," says Numsa regional organiser, Clement Herandien. "There are no jobs to be had. That tells you how bad the situation must be at the workplace for so many workers to resign.
"What increased the pressure on workers was that no new workers were employed after the host of resignations. A smaller workforce still had to produce the same output.
Numsa declared a dispute of interest over the disciplinary code. Parties deadlocked and workers decided to go on legal strike. During the six week strike, more than 90% of the workers remained on strike. After three weeks
the company locked them out. Scabs were brought in but "there was very little production," says Herandien. "All the scabs produced was scrap!"As workers entered the 6th week of their strike, fellow Numsa members from other GUD branches in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Johannesburg were planning to come out in solidarity with their striking brothers and sisters.
But management agreed to take workers back and negotiate a new disciplinary code. Viva GUD workers viva!
Alstom management gives in More than 120 workers at Alstom's Benoni plant are back at work after resisting management's attempts to cancel their agreement signed way back in 1991.
Alstom shop steward Joshua Manana was one of the shop stewards that had negotiated this agreement way back then.
This agreement made Alstom one of the first engineering companies to reduce their grades to six grades from 13. But 17 years later management told workers that the 6-grade structure was not working for them anymore. "We are paying too much," was their complaint.
They said that the managers had made a stupid decision when they signed the original agreement. They wanted to cancel the agreement and introduce new grades below the current lowest grade. New workers would be paid at the new lower levels.But it was never going to be easy for the employer.
Only about 10 workers, members of Solidarity union, did not join the strike. Numsa had also notified it that Alstom's sister plants had submitted a notice of secondary strike action and that this strike would begin on August 15. And the company's order book was full.
The pressure was on management to settle the dispute. On Monday August 11, "management called us and said they were giving in," says Manana. "They said they would give us want we wanted.
We went back to work while they drafted the agreement. At 12.30 management gave us a draft but it had conditions. We said we are going to report to workers.
Workers said 'No this is nonsense with conditions' and so we went on strike again."The next day shop stewards met again with management and were joined by Ekurhuleni organiser, Jacob Xilongo.
Management finally withdrew its proposal and agreed to stay with the current agreement."It was about a principle to us, it was not about getting richer," says Manana. "We were defending our gains.
We felt that if management could reverse this agreement then it could reverse all the other agreements that we have. We have lost a lot of money but we feel great that management can't do what it wants to us!"
Source
Numsa News