CWAO IN THE NEWS

I joined SWF in 2016 after my fellow workers and I were unfairly dismissed by the City of Ekurhuleni. Since then I have been involved in many struggles with Simunye Workers Forum members, and I have participated in many CWAW campaigns. This year is my 10th year of struggle.

I regard the Simunye Workers Forum as a house of movement for workers. I believe SWF can deliver democracy to workers, because workers are being workshopped to understand their rights and can challenge their bosses in terms of the Labour Relations Act, especially labour broker workers who are mostly rejected by the traditional trade unions. SWF is their hope and their home.

Simunye Workers Forum has led the fight to win the working class struggle. Mobilising workers across different sectors emphasises unity among worker struggles against the bosses in their chain of capitalism. The current government is also assisting the bosses to exploit workers so far. The government itself is not following the true procedures in terms of the Labour Relations Act. For example, when the minimum wage increases, EPWP workers are still on R16.52, which is very bad, comrades. It should not be allowed, but the government did this.

The highlights of these 10 years of struggle with SWF was the struggle to be registered as a trade union. If traditional trade unions behaved and attended to issues the way the Simunye Workers Forum does, workers would be able to express their own concerns at any time. Workers should have a platform to raise their own issues in their own time.

SWF is totally against the minimum wage that is now a very low R30.23 per hour. It is not enough, because it is simply the price of bread. SWF is advocating for a living wage and a living UIF. That is the struggle SWF is taking on right now, together with the struggle against amendments to labour laws.

Through this decade, we as SWF have learned that the working class struggle is the same as the community struggle. You can have struggles at work in your workplace, and when you knock off and go back home you will be facing another struggle. SWF is saying the community must also be involved in fighting the working class struggle.

Workers under SWF have shown resistance to the bloody capitalist forces who do not follow any laws of this country. So arrogant, like the bosses of CHEP pallets in Jet Park. The workers there have been on strike for seven months and are still prepared to go the extra mile in their struggle to make them money. Years back, after these workers won a court victory, they became deemed permanent employees of CHEP, but as I’ve mentioned, these bosses do not care. They are selling workers to labour brokers to exploit workers further. How can a worker be a labour broker worker for more than 20 years? CHEP must fall.

Thank you.

Category: CAMPAIGN | SWF 10 YEARS