Cosatu said its national day of action on Monday in all nine provinces was a success as it highlighted that the working class is under siege and the government must do more to improve the working conditions, wages and lives of workers and their families.
The nationwide strike, supported by various unions and the SACP, was fuelled by widespread frustration over wage stagnation, rising food and fuel prices, and growing economic inequality.
Among the most pressing issues highlighted during the march was the steep increase in the cost of living, which many workers described as unsustainable.
Cosatu said food prices, combined with Eskom’s proposed 36% electricity tariff hike for 2025, would exacerbate the financial burden on already struggling households.
The union’s spokesperson Zanele Sabela said it takes great courage for workers drowning in debt and struggling to cope with the rising cost-of-living to sacrifice a day’s wages
”Workers made this painful sacrifice to send a decisive message to government and business, that enough is enough. Workers expect and deserve better.
“Workers took to the streets to shine a powerful spotlight on the painful issues hurting them, their families, communities and the unemployed given the extremely high unemployment rate in the country with 11.3 million people needing jobs, accelerating retrenchments, relentless attacks on collective bargaining, the ever-escalating cost-of-living and misguided reckless austerity budget cuts to essential public and municipal services,” Sabela said.
She said entities that received memoranda were given 14 days to respond to Cosatu’s demands.
“Should we not receive any response by then, the federation will pursue these entities via the various forums we participate in including the Tripartite Alliance, Nedlac, Parliament, bargaining councils, through public discourse and on the streets.
She said the union had in the past won decisive battles from releasing R65 billion from the Unemployment Insurance Fund to help 5.7 million workers during Covid-19; to the National Minimum Wage raising the salaries of 6 million impoverished workers; to the National Health Insurance Act’s recent assent to the SRD Grant laying the foundation for a Basic Income Grant ‘and more recently the Two-Pot pension reforms giving relief to millions of workers’.
“Cosatu will stop at nothing to ensure the issues raised during the national day of action are prioritised and most importantly resolved. We cannot remain silent when the working class is under siege.”
The Mercury