NUMSA Congress News - Let us work together as a family of metalworkers
Item
- Title
- NUMSA Congress News - Let us work together as a family of metalworkers
- Creator
- NUMSA
- Date Issued
- Oct-96
- Description
- From the 25 to the 29 September, NUMSA held its Fifth National Congress. Seven hundred and sixty-two delegates came from all our locals. They had prepared well. We saw from the debate. I was afraid before the Congress. I was not happy. 80% j of the shop stewards you elected in 1996 were new. I thought the level of debate at the Congress was not going to be high. But I was wrong - the level of debate was high. We must be proud of ourselves. Thank you for mandating your representatives to Congress - that is what we mean by worker control and democracy. We are doing our work under different conditions compared to before April 27, 1994. We have a democratically elected government in place. It is not as hostile as its predecessor. But the reality of the situation is that as workers in the workplace, nothing has changed. Management is coming to us with new ideas like kaizen, team-work, etc. These are all about eliminating waste. They define waste as anything that is not absolutely essential to production. They want to get to the lowest levels of inputs, equipment, material and workers. This means more and more control over workers' time and activities, a faster workplace, longer and more irregular hours. They standardise jobs and make the workplace more regimented. So we have to focus our efforts collectively on our “core business†- to represent our members effectively. We have to fight for job security, training, technical skills and better increases. We have to do all these under difficult conditions, for example, reduction of tariffs to conform with the requirements of the World Trade Organisation. We do not want the country's economy to be cushioned forever but the drastic restructuring results in job loss and factory closures. We must have an alternative in place to ensure that people do not once more swell the swollen ranks of the unemployed. Work organisation is taking place in different forms in different workplaces. We are involved in these processes. I know that when shop stewards give report backs and persuade members to accept certain things in exchange for job security, members tend to regard them as management stooges. We mustn't think like that. It is causing division amongst us. Outside the workplace, the balance of forces is not in favour of the working class for reasons that we all know. We must work together as workers, shop stewards, administrators and organisers to build our Union into a coherent vehicle. Only a strong vehicle can play a leading role in freeing our people economically. Let us work together as the family of metalworkers!
- Format
- Language
- English
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/114065
- Archive
- Cory Library for Humanitites Research
- Provenance
- The item is held at the Cory Library for Humanities Research, Rhodes University, on behalf of the Labour Research Service
- Extent
- 4 pages
- Rights
- National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA)
- Rights Holder
- National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA)
- Use/re-use
- The materials are made available explicitly for research and educational purposes. Any use of these materials must be cleared with the Labour Research Service.
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