POLITICS

Labour representation needed at discussions about economic revival – COSATU

Federation concerned outcomes will be unilaterally imposed on workers

Discussions about economic revival are incomplete without labour representation

9 February 2016

The ongoing, necessary and overdue discussions between government and big business to generate ideas to save and kick-start the economy are incomplete without labour being represented in them. Our concern about the exclusion of labour in these talks is that the outcomes will be unilaterally imposed on workers.

The emerging message and discourse coming from both capital and the state hint at strategies that includes privatisation, cut in social spending and labour flexibility. These are only meant to defend and maintain the status quo. COSATU will not agree to wage cuts, freezing of vacancies and unilateral attempts to raise productivity without workers being consulted.

The time has come for the state, labour and big business to discuss strategies that are not motivated by the short-term view of profitability, but by the long-term perspective of development. COSATU has been calling for a high level jobs summit to discuss the ongoing job losses that have affected all the major sectors of the economy including the mining industry for a very long time.

If companies do not review their positions on job cuts; the ongoing retrenchments will worsen an already bad situation. The rate of unemployment in this country is socially and politically unsustainable.

It is now patently obvious that the solutions to this current retrenchment crisis cannot be found through negotiations at a plant level or even at an industry wide level. They should be an issue for national negotiations between labour, business and the state. COSATU believes that to deal with this crisis of job losses , we need economic and industrial restructuring and that can only be achieved if there is buy-in from capital and a political will from government.

What should be clear to everyone is that nothing will be achieved if workers are not allowed to have a say in how the economy is managed and ultimately restructured. At the centre of the debate should be the topic of wealth redistribution and state intervention because the status quo is unworkable and unsound. The country needs to move to an entirely new terrain of negotiations by engaging and tackling the long overdue topic of orientating the economy to meet the needs of the people.

The economic forces of this crisis and stagnation are deep-rooted and only profound economic restructuring and the forging of new strategies for growth and development will bring about a solution to these problems.

COSATU is unwavering in its commitment to an economic framework that emphasises growth through redistribution. We are opposed to the neoliberal framework that seeks to encourage growth first and development and distribution later. It’s about time we took a critical look at the forms of ownership and control of the local industries.

We cannot continue to allow open competition with international manufacturers. What we need is a strong developmental state that can intervene and will have a direct role in the strategic areas of the economy. We need a state bank that will help the poor with funding that is not provided by the commercial banks and we need a progressive tax system, where the rich will contribute more.

The country has to do away with inflation targeting and needs a high tax on capital flows to stop capital flight. We need to use quotas, tariffs and subsidies to kick-start and nurture the chosen industries that will result in job creation. We reiterate our support for the nationalisation of the strategic sectors of the economy – Arcellor Mittal- Sasol and the creation of a state mining and pharmaceutical companies.

Government must accept that perennial unemployment at 34% is a huge crisis that if it is not addressed as matter urgency by all levels of government and the private sector, it will explode. Government needs to intensify its industrialisation programme.  All levels of government, including the private sector must only buy locally made products and stop purchasing cheap imports, which threaten local jobs.  There must be decent living wages for all.  These steps are critical towards stimulating local economic growth that will benefit all.

Treasury must stop with its plans to privatise Eskom.  This is a state owned enterprise, built upon the sweat and hard work of workers and tax payers, precisely to provide affordable electricity to all.  It cannot be handed over on a silver platter to some vultures to profiteer from.  This would inevitably result in electricity becoming unaffordable to the lower and middle income households and thus roll back our post-1994 gains.

Government should focus on reigning in the out of control CEOs and managers of our state owned enterprises, who are wrecking havoc and threatening to bankrupt SAA, Telkom, the Post Office etc. The bungling and recklessness of these managers results in workers losing their jobs.

Government should also refrain from blaming low earning nurses, police officers, teachers, refuse collectors for the rising public service wage bill. We agree that state expenditure must not be properly managed, however the solution is not to cut public servants’ meagre wages, nor is it to further squeeze battling working and middle class families through brutal income, electricity and VAT increases. 

The country can also not afford to cut the number of public servants as we have seen in hospitals, where there are already not enough nurses and doctors.  The solution is to cut the fat on top, by reducing our bloated Cabinet,  cutting wasteful expenditure ,such as full page colour adverts of various Ministers and Mayors in newspapers. We should cut performance bonuses of parastatal CEOs, cancel international jaunts by senior officials ,which bring no benefit to the nation and also cancel the billions spent on consultants etc.

The federation is prepared to lead the workers struggles to achieve these demands as mandated by our 12th National Congress. We shall mobilise and make sure that the views of the workers are listened to and that our demands are met. The workers therefore are not pleading that they must be consulted about the economic decisions but they are demanding that all decisions about the economy should incorporate their views. Without any fundamental change in the economic structure of the economy as whole, there will be no lasting solution to our problems.

Issued by Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 9 February 2016