COSATU takes to the street over job losses
Johannesburg – The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is embarking on a national day of strike action against job losses in eight of the nine provinces on Wednesday.
Cosatu said workers within different economic sectors in the country have over the years experienced the brunt of job losses through retrenchments, privatisation, corruption and the federation demands an end to this regressive trend.
All Cosatu affiliates, including SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), have thrown their weight behind the strike in all provinces except in the Western Cape.
Chief among its concerns Cosatu will be marching against the increasing levels of job losses, to condemn the impact that state capture and corruption had on the lives of the poor, to fight against the outsourcing and privatisation of public and private services, and to fight against the unbundling and privatisation of Eskom.
On Tuesday, the federation noted the latest employment figures which showed that South Africa ended last year with an unemployment rate of 27.1 percent. Cosatu said this vindicates its position that there is no plan from the policymakers to solve our stubborn unemployment rate.