Cosatu’s biggest union, Numsa with 340,000 members, has been expelled from the federation. Half of Cosatu’s affiliates have allied themselves with Numsa and are operating outside Cosatu’s fold. But does the crisis in Cosatu matter? Does it make any difference to class struggle in defending and promoting working class interests?
Martin Jansen
Opinion | 30 April 2015
Tomorrow, May 1, South Africa celebrates Workers’ Day. In the second of three articles, Leonard Gentle analyses the recent history of the labour movement in South Africa.
Leonard Gentle
Opinion | 30 April 2015
On Friday 1 May South Africa will celebrate Workers’ Day. In the first of three articles on the current state of the labour movement, Leonard Gentle explains the history of this holiday.
Leonard Gentle
Opinion | 29 April 2015
Rosina Cloete claims that her husband, 50 year old Colin Cloete, was killed by an Ashton farmer while picking tomatoes and is determined to make sure justice is done.
Barbara Maregele
News | 28 April 2015
Faced with what appeared to be a veritable swamp of ideology at a “socialist movement” conference in Boksburg last week, the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) has embarked on the process of creating a “Marxist, Leninist, revolutionary working class” political party. However, Numsa also facilitated the Boksburg conference, where representatives from 11 political groups or parties and a number of trade unionists and individuals made up the approximately 150 attendees.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 27 April 2015
News on the labour front over the recent past — and the past week — has involved ongoing infighting, death threats, an assassination, and the petrol bombing of a union president’s house. Little wonder then that an important labour law development has gone largely unnoticed.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 20 April 2015
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), campaigning groups and labour supporting members of the European parliament this month launched protests about the continued harassment and jailing of trade unionists and democracy campaigners in Swaziland. ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow has noted that, in Swaziland, “Violations against the fundamental rights of workers have become systemic.”
Terry Bell
Opinion | 13 April 2015
A manager at cleaning company Pronto Kleen has been charged with fraud after allegedly inflating employees’ working hours and claiming the extra money for herself.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 8 April 2015
The fact that Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has refused to accept his dismissal from the federation should have come as no surprise to readers. This column has pointed out for months now that the central executive committee (CEC) of Cosatu has no constitutional authority to finally dismiss, suspend or expel any office bearer or affiliate; that only a national congress may do.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 7 April 2015
Cassiem Mohammed, who worked for 40 years at the Athlone Power Station, has finally been paid compensation for the lung disease he developed from contact with deadly asbestos fibres at work.
Pete Lewis
News | 24 March 2015
After a four year delay, the hearing in the case of 39 workers dismissed from Robertson Abattoir started in the Cape Town Labour Court this week.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 18 March 2015
On Thursday, a group of about ten women marched to parliament to protest against the delay by government to extend certain basic rights to domestic workers.
Bernard Chiguvare
Brief | 13 March 2015
A Nyanga man has had more than R1,000 deducted from his salary every month since September 2013, to pay for furniture which he says he never bought.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
Feature | 12 March 2015
Infighting, bickering and the pursuit of power and patronage have largely paralysed Cosatu in recent years. That, broadly, is the view of the labour federation’s embattled general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi and of Jay Naidoo, Cosatu’s first general secretary.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 9 March 2015
Only 50% of domestic workers in the Western Cape are registered for Unemployment Insurance, according to official statistics. GroundUp tested the system to find out why employers don’t register their workers.
Ben Stanwix
News | 6 March 2015
It's 5:30am in Town Two, Khayelitsha, and firefighter Anelisa Flani has just started her day.
Barbara Maregele
News | 6 March 2015