Workers are trapped in slavery wages
- Published on 2 Jul 2014
- HR Pulse News Desk
According to the Mail&Guardian, workers in South Africa have no reason to celebrate 20 years of freedom because they are not free, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Tuesday.
"Workers ask what is being celebrated on Freedom Day because they have nothing to show for it," Vavi told thousands of striking metalworkers in central Johannesburg.
"Workers are still trapped in slavery wages. The people who celebrate the freedom are the bosses." Vavi and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) president Andrew Chirwa earlier handed a memorandum of demands to officials of the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council, and Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa).
About 220 000 metalworkers began an indefinite strike on Tuesday for a double-digit wage increase. Marches were held in Cape Town, George, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London, reports Mail&Guardian.
"Workers are tired of relying on government for housing. Metalworkers need at least R1 000 a month in housing allowance," said Vavi.
According to Vavi, the strike was a political fight for a living wage. "We are told that we are being irresponsible for embarking on a strike. We are told this is not about workers, but about Numsa's decisions taken at its last congress," Vavi said. "A demand for a living wage is political, because it is politics that allowed such conditions 20 years into a democracy."
