Cosatu gets real and puts jobs ahead of pay hikes

05 July 2016 - 10:01 By The Times Editorial

The announcement yesterday by the country's biggest labour federation, Cosatu, that it would encourage its member unions to balance wage demands with the preservation of jobs is to be welcomed.Over the decades the ANC-aligned federation, whose affiliates represent about 1.9 million workers, has not hesitated to use its considerable muscle - including the threat of strikes - to secure significant gains for its members, who range from teachers and nurses to miners.But, against the backdrop of the current jobs bloodbath and a stuttering economy, which is expected to grow by less than 1% this year, Cosatu is urging caution."You don't want to get an increase and then people are retrenched and only a few enjoy the benefits of that increase," its general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali told the Bloomberg news agency yesterday.Stressing that Cosatu would push for above-inflation increases for lower-paid workers, Ntshalintshali said better-paid employees could settle for wage increases that were in line with inflation.The federation's stance is likely to be cautiously welcomed by employers in the food and beverage, and transport, sectors, as well as in the public service.But imminent negotiations in the platinum sector - dominated by the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which led a crippling five-month strike in 2014 - are likely to prove far trickier.So, too, are those on behalf of workers in the metals and automotive sector, in which the Cosatu-breakaway the National Union of Metalworkers of SA holds sway.Projecting itself as the voice of reason during wage talks is unlikely to be an effective recruiting tool for Cosatu, but job preservation simply has to be top-of-mind right now.Perhaps Cosatu's new realism will help Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan get business, labour and the government to speak with one voice and steer the economy off the rocks...

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