2 years covers us all!Judy Madumo
IT took about an hour for the commission to agree on whether to agree on a one, two or three year agreement. Other regions like Mpumalanga declared that “transformation is a process and therefore a 3-year agreement is a mode of transformation”.
And the region also views that the proposal should be seen in the spirit of the theme. Supporting Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape rose up and told the commission that “we should continue with the 3-year agreement and fight to win and those gains made, to be retained during the duration of the agreement”.
Are metalworkers ready to confront the enemy?Judy Madumo
Viva, Metalworkers Viva! The 1st Vice President of Numsa, Ben Khoza, interrupts a song which conference delegates were absorbed in. This revolutionary song was vocally led by Hlanganani chairperson, Phil Bokaba. It’s about time that workers as a key component in the consumption of music, push monopoly capital in this sector to open a “Best Igwija Vocalist New Entrant” category for its yearly SAMA awards. And I bet my last penny, the Hlanganani Regional Chairperson, will scoop this award!
The interruption by Khoza, saw delegates taking to their seats. Delegates dressed in red or black dashidas with matching red bandanas looked more like South Koreans-in-a-protest-march than local workers. They paid attention to what the President was delivering.
The conference was charged with discussions that will see delegates breaking into commissions to look at “how do we as leaders and not marshals assist members to put bread on the table” as the GS has punctuated the day’s deliberations.. From the attitude of the delegates through their songs, deliberations and dress code, the swords are drawn, metalworkers are ready to confront the hyena.
The region indicated that it has analysed amongst others stability in the economy, security of employment and profitability, and therefore the organisation should consider “staying within the 3 year agreement”.
However proponents of the 1-year agreement view, Ekurhuleni, reared their head. “With macro-economic stability there’s nothing that raises the stakes for employers and therefore we should stick to a 1 year agreement”.
However this was refuted by one participant from Wits CW charging from the back “consider what the GS has said, that collective bargaining starts only after the agreement has been signed. And therefore 2 years is ok, three is too much and 2 years will accommodate both the 1 year view and the 3 year view”.
The table then intervened and reminded the commission of what the problems of the past 1 year agreements had been because of promulgation, backdating, representivity, short notice to educate members amongst others. Therefore “given that in the government there is this issue of having long term agreements and there is also the problem that we sleep and wake up by the year when we are about to negotiate,” interjects Sam Tsiane, motor sector coordinator, and he continues “we are sitting with an interdict, RMI has interdicted us for the closed shop!”
It then seemed that the comrade from Wits CW was helping to sway some minds in the room, neatly packed in circles like sardines. Despite poor ventilation because some comrades strongly appealed that it should be put off as it was making a noise, comrades kept charging like raging bulls. Whether it was because of swaying of minds or poor ventilation, or rage, when it was Wits CW regional secretary, Charlie Bezuidenhout’s turn to speak, he said that “I don’t know what to say, my mind has lost me,” and he sat down.
But then WC had its take on the matter “Long term agreements came about because of a specific wage model and it was linked to inflation. The sentiment now is that we should move away from that because it doesn’t assist our members. To revive our sleeping members, we need to have a 1 year agreement and rather negotiate on an annual basis and all issues are still there”. Northern Cape then followed “we agree on a long term agreement but are flexible on whether it should be 2 or 3 years long”.
After a long one-hour winding and bumpy road, a summary was announced declaring that “the duration of the agreement must be 2 years and in this 2 years, wages must be negotiated annually.”
…In the engineering commission
Engineering robot on wages!Francois Quarrie
THE second day of the NBC broke into commissions to find consensus on confronting the logic of capital through collective bargaining. The engineering commission agreed not to compromise the principle of the Union (Numsa).
Just as vehicles are subject to roadworthy checks, the agreement will be subject to an annual review, especially the tyres (wages) which tend to wear out very fast on this economic freeway. Bargaining representatives are serious about stability and honed in on the LRA’s ability to facilitate a process of participatory management and are ready to assist in management of companies in the interests of members.
Asking those vexing questions!Jenny Grice
NO-ONE would have thought that debating long-term agreements could have taken almost two hours but that was the experience in the engineering commission on the second day of the NBC. Regions seemed wedded to their positions. Northern Cape, Ekurhuleni and Sedibeng were committed to one year while Eastern Cape, KZN and MP wanted a continuation of long term agreements for three years. Wits Central West was taking a middle of the road position with two years while Western Cape (WC) was marrying the short and long term agreement proposals.
WC proposed that the Union should identify core demands to be achieved over three years. WC proposed this “as a way to avoid the shopping list, inactivity of our members and the many matters that are deferred to sub committees.” However, Numsa’s second vice president, Cedric Gina, wanted to know from delegates what was causing this “lull” in activity. Could we blame the lull on long term agreements or is it because of “the type of workers that we have now?” No said Sedibeng’s Joeey Maake, we can’t blame new members for the lull. “The way to integrate new members is through action.”
That was the problem agreed Stanford Ndoba from Ekurhuleni. Numsa is like an apprentice learning the “theory and practice. Numsa is good on the theory but in practice it is weak!” He agreed that Numsa should follow the principle spelt out by WC – a long term agreement with certain core demands negotiated each year to achieve them all at the end of the three years. Such a formulation will keep workers active every year while allowing the union and employers more time to deal with longer term issues!