Cosatu calls on workers to strike against ‘crippling economic crisis’

South Africa’s largest trade union federation, Cosatu, has called on all non-essential workers to strike on Monday, 7 October, in a National Day of Action against the ‘crippling economic crisis’ in the country.

Cosatu has called for non-essential workers to “come out in their numbers” on Monday, 7 October as part of a National Day of Action against the “crippling economic crisis” in South Africa, which it says is characterised by joblessness, poverty and inequality.

The trade union federation will be joined by affiliated trade unions, including the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) and the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu).

Cosatu has stated that its primary grievance is South Africa’s high unemployment rate, with 11.3 million people in need of jobs.

“Given this very high unemployment rate, Cosatu is actually demanding a moratorium on retrenchments because it doesn’t make sense to say we have this high unemployment rate and then we are still cutting the little jobs that we have,” said Zanele Sabela, Cosatu’s national spokesperson.

Sabela referenced the large-scale retrenchments that had taken place at the SA Post Office and metals group Sibanye Stillwater this year.

Read more: Employees, communities brace for worst as SA Post Office on brink of liquidation

“The latest company to announce that it is going to be cutting jobs is Seriti, the mining company, and they’re talking about more than 1,100 jobs,” said Sabela, adding that Saccawu was in the process of engaging with Pick n Pay over the retailer’s plans to retrench thousands of workers.

“When you consider that … one job actually supports on average seven people, you can imagine the many people that will be devastated when these retrenchments do come through,” she said.

Cosatu noted that an “ever-escalating” cost of living meant that poor and working-class communities were struggling to feed their families.

“To add insult to injury, Eskom has proposed an electricity tariff hike of more than 36% for 2025, on the back of a 12.5% rise this year. If the National Energy Regulator of SA grants it, inflation will spike, prompting the Reserve Bank to once again hike up the repo rate, ultimately arresting economic growth. Workers have had enough,” said Cosatu.

It said it wanted the government to do away with adherence to austerity measures, especially now that “budget cuts are threatening the quality of education of our children”.

What will happen on Monday?

Cosatu is planning a national strike, with protest marches across the country. Sabela said that in Johannesburg, workers would meet at George Lea Park in Sandton before marching to the JSE, where they would hand over a memorandum to representatives of Business Unity South Africa (Busa), Discovery, the National Department of Employment and Labour, the National Treasury and the SA Reserve Bank.

In Cape Town, there will be a march to the provincial legislature and national Parliament, while in KwaZulu-Natal, workers will march to the Durban City Hall.

Sabela said it was difficult to predict how many workers would participate.

The strike will be in compliance with section 77 of the Labour Relations Act, which means employees who participate will have legal protection from disciplinary action.

“If workers come back on a Tuesday and they have problems [with their employers], they will have to get in touch with us or get hold of their union, if they have one. The CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] will also help with this, and so will the Department of Labour,” said Sabela.

According to the Labour Relations Act, a person cannot strike if they are an essential worker, meaning those individuals whose jobs are considered critical to the “life, personal safety, or health of the whole or any part of the population”. This includes healthcare workers and the police.

Will this make a difference?

Busa released a statement expressing concern over the planned nationwide protest, saying it did not believe the strike would address any of the challenges Cosatu was raising.

“We respect the right to strike or protest, within the dictates of law, but believe the issues raised by Cosatu are structural in nature and can be addressed through the various bilateral and multilateral processes, engagements and partnerships under way,” said Busa.

Busa CEO Cas Coovadia said that at a time when the economy was under “severe strain”, such protests only added further pressure, rather than contributing to efforts to achieve sustainable economic recovery.

“We need to prioritise stability and collaboration to foster long-term economic growth, rather than resorting to measures that negatively impact both businesses and citizens,” he said.

Busa reiterated a proposal to revise section 77 of the Labour Relations Act to limit the time between National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) certificates and protests to 12 months, to ensure that labour actions were “relevant, current and justified”. Nedlac issues certificates for socioeconomic protests to be protected.

Sabela argued that Cosatu was allowing workers to raise their voices and identify the issues they believed the country needed to focus on.

“[The National Day of Action] is to raise our concerns, because policy is a political choice. And so, if we raise our voices to say these are the things that we are unhappy about, we make our voices heard so that we can feed into the policy,” she said.