Mailing from the Africa Fund Labor Desk says the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) opened their recent annual contract negotiations amid an atmosphere of continuing violence and intimidation. The mailing says job security is the number one issue, amid reports of tens of thousands of pending layoffs; wages and demands for an additional holiday on March 21 to commemorate the 1960 Sharpeville massacre are also on the table. Violence in Natal and in General Secretary Moses Mayekiso's home township of Alexandria has left some 91 people dead in the past 10 days, and Numsa organizer Alfred Worthington reports employers are using Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha organization to try and...
Mailing from the Africa Fund Labor Desk says the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) opened their recent annual contract negotiations amid an atmosphere of continuing violence and intimidation. The mailing says job security is the number one issue, amid reports of tens of thousands of pending layoffs; wages and demands for an additional holiday on March 21 to commemorate the 1960 Sharpeville massacre are also on the table. Violence in Natal and in General Secretary Moses Mayekiso's home township of Alexandria has left some 91 people dead in the past 10 days, and Numsa organizer Alfred Worthington reports employers are using Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha organization to try and undermine the union's organizing efforts. The metalworkers union is currently negotiating the merger of two divisions of National Bolt at Benoni near Johannesburg. Statements of solidarity can be sent to the General Secretary Moses Mayekiso at Numsa's head office. The mailing says the Bush administration has requested some $1 million in USAID funds to be sent to Inkatha, which is pending before the House Africa Subcommittee. People are urged to write the Chairman of the Africa Subcommittee, Mervyn Dymally to oppose any U.S. government funds going to Inkatha because of its involvement in union busting.
