COSATU rejects DA strike proposal
The Congress of South African Trade Unions rejects with contempt the proposal from the Democratic Alliance on 7 July 2014 to move a law that "would force unions to take practical steps to prevent strike-related violence".
COSATU has consistently opposed violence, intimidation and damage to property during strikes and demonstrations, all of which are offences under existing laws, and therefore require no new law to deal with them.
The federation and its affiliates have always done everything possible to ensure that its activities are peaceful, lawful and orderly. We have taken action against any members proved to be guilty of such offences. We already provide marshals to help with crowd control and we already educate workers about the law.
As an example, it is worth repeating what the COSATU in the Western Cape said to its members on 12 October 2012 during the violent truck drivers' strike:
"The truckers strike is supported, but the barbaric assaults and murder of innocent people are condemned and the full might of the law must be brought against those perpetrators. COSATU will never support violence and intimidation, and calls on COSATU members to expose those, using the cover of the strike, to carry out these horrendous attacks on other workers.
"COSATU is an organization of discipline and solidarity, this kind of violence has no place in our ranks. It is a sad day when workers are set alight and murdered under the banner of the right to protest. Let us show our solidarity with the injured and families of those killed and expose the criminals committing these crimes. Forward to solidarity and peaceful protest!"
The DA is however opportunistically using incidents of violence to bring in a law which, contrary to what they say, would fundamentally destroy workers' constitutionally guaranteed right to engage in strikes and lawful protest action.
The law which they now propose would empower courts to force employers and unions into arbitration where strikes were excessively violent, or declare such a strike unprotected. Such a law would give unparalleled power to an arm of the state to undermine collective bargaining and the basic human right to withdraw ones labour.
Forcing workers to work is nothing short of slavery, and almost certainly unenforceable if, as likely, the workers simply refuse to submit.
In cases where unions are deemed not to have taken certain measures to prevent violence and damage to property, the DA even wants courts to also have the power to award damages against that union.
In particular, the threat to award financial damages against a union as a whole for offences committed by individuals would have the potential to bankrupt unions and force them to disband, which is surely what the DA, and its friends in business, actually want this new law to achieve, so that they can exploit their workers even more ruthlessly than they do already.
Predictably as well, the DA completely ignores the fact that employers are at least equally responsible for strikes, and in many cases more so. Yet they say nothing about seeking damages against employers.
Such draconian powers are almost certainly unconstitutional and contrary to ILO Conventions guaranteeing workers' rights to strike, which the South African Government has signed. COSATU will campaign relentlessly, thorough the alliance, in Parliament, at the Constitutional court, and in the streets, to ensure that such a law is defeated.
Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, July 8 2014
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