NUMSA STATEMENT ON THE DA'S POSITION ON LABOUR BROKERS!
18 January 2011
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is not surprised by the position adopted by the DA on the proposed labour law amendments. This is perfectly in keeping with the backward capitalist political traditions, and historic mission of the DA; as the political mouth piece of South Africa's extremely backward and unequal and supper exploitative capitalism.
The DA very cruelly and crudely offers us the non choice between few "decent jobs" and many temporary workers! Anyone remotely familiar with the harsh and horrible realities of the South African economy and society will easily understand what the DA's choice means: keeping millions of Black and African workers permanently at the bottom of the food chain, and chained to labour brokers and the cruelty of either temporary employment or unemployment!
The DA has revealed its extremely backward, conservative and retrogressive attitude to trade unionism even by any low standards of liberal democracy: it hates trade unions and would rather see us revert back to the cruel past when Black and African South African workers had no rights at all. It has failed to disguise its hatred of trade unions by claiming that the proposed amendments are designed to please COSATU.
To millions of workers labour brokering represents the worst form of modern day slavery. They are denied their full employment rights including the right to form or join trade unions of their choice. Labour brokers parasitically make billions of Rands out of the labour of others, without themselves producing anything!
At the heart of the South African social crisis is the fact, historically, of the condemnation of millions of Black and African workers to inferior jobs, inferior wages, and of course to unemployment and labour brokering. This is our basis for calling for decent work. This is a fact the DA wishes to conceal in its opposition to banning labour brokers because its economic masters have and continue to reap billions of Rands from the extremely cheap Black and African labour in this country.
To the extent that the proposed amendments to the LRA by the Department of Labour are consistent with the Polokwane Resolutions and the 2009 Elections Manifesto commitments by the ANC of creating decent work for our people, we shall support them.
May we remind the DA and all those who do not know where we are coming from that the banning and prohibiting of labour brokers is further consistent with the Freedom Charter, the overarching policy programme of the ANC, which says, among other good things: "Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and contract labour shall be abolished". We intend to advance this position.
We repeat what COATU has so well articulated: labour brokers do not create employment; they parasitically thrive on the slave labour of others!
Numsa has heeded the call by our Federation, Cosatu, to wage war on labour brokers this year. We stand ready to do this.
Statement issued by Irvin Jim, NUMSA general secretary, January 18 2011
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
