Cosatu Will Hold National Strike On Thursday

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is calling for a national strike on Thursday, October 7th 2021. They are calling on their workers to join their marchers or to stay away from work.
Cosatu’s First Deputy President Michael Shingange explained that the conditions that workers have to operate under are such that the union must take to the streets and voice their displeasure. He says they are also protesting against the private and public sectors.
He said, “both these two employers are conspiring to attack the workers at the time of economic hardships so it's our view that we must go as we've always done to the street, to the captains of industry and also to the department of labour and the government at large to make policies in such a manner that they resolve the issues workers are faced with”.
Shingange says that the Covid-19 pandemic is being used by companies to the collective bargaining agreement of 2018. He says companies began attacking the collective bargaining agreement before the pandemic started.
A statement released by the union says that the strike is focused on pushing both government and the private sector to act to fix the economic mess that the country finds itself in, and take seriously the issues that are affecting workers and South Africans in general.
Cosatu is also calling for a reversal of budget cuts that have led to the wage freeze which the union calls unacceptable.
Cosatu represents more than 1.8 million workers in South African. Shingange says that more than 30 marchers will take place across South Africa and no less than 2000 people will attend these marchers.
“We think that's going to have an impact because, coupled with the ongoing strike in other industries and other unions, we think that the employers and the policymakers are supposed to come to the terms with the fact that workers and the working-class in general are actually very disappointed in the manner in which they are handling their issues particularly when they are holding profits themselves but depriving the working-class of the benefits that they deserve”.
Cosatu has also declared their support of the current strike action being taken by The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA). NUMSA is demanding an 8% increase across the board for the first year and CPI +2% for the second and third years.