The National Union of Metalworkers plans to capitalize on the backlash against real empowerment of workers by using the fabulously rich black elite to lock them out of black empowerment transactions.
In a bold stance, Numsa’s National Bargaining Conference which resumes today (Tuesday 24 April, 2007) at Randburg Towers Conference Centre, Johannesburg will map out drastic strategies to end exploitation of its members and transform profitable industries like auto sector, metal and engineering industries, in this round of negotiations.
Ensuring that companies redistribute wealth to employees who were solely responsible for the companies to gain competitive edge and huge profits will help the union make huge impact on collective bargaining this year.
Numsa believes that employer bodies, especially in the engineering sectors have begun to rush into concluding elitist black empowerment deals with the hope of scoring lucrative tenders from government as a result of R340 billion to be spent on infrastructure development.
“We want to see the redistribution of wealth at the point of production, and we believe slogans alone won’t redistribute wealth,” Numsa general secretary Silumko Nondwangu said.
With the demands consolidated from the regions and for consideration in this conference there is a need to verify if they respond to these strategic questions and challenges or do they constitute a set of recycled demands that we could not win from the last bargaining round,” he explained.
Numsa hopes the move would help to lock employers and the union to long-drawn-out negotiations to transform the sectors in the long-term period of the duration of the agreements.
The three-day conference themed: “confronting the logic of capital through collective bargaining” will also consolidate wage demands in line with promising growth prospects for the future.
Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa and Cosatu president Willy Madisha are expected to give address the conference today(Tuesday) on industrial framework strategy and respectively key growth drivers in metal and engineering sectors.
The meeting will be concluded with a special central executive committee to ratify deliberations and a media conference on Thursday.
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Issued by: Mziwakhe Hlangani, Numsa national information officer
Cell phone: 0829407116
E-mail : mziwakheh@numsa.org.za
Web site : www.numsa.org.za