Cosatu will be ramping up its campaigns in support of badly needed interventions

THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) convened its Central Committee (CC) over the past week.

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The CC is a policy midterm review convened by Cosatu to assess work done by the Federation, successes and challenges. It’s a chance for Affiliates to raise key issues facing the working-class and most importantly, what the solutions should be.

The CC is a workers’ parliament. A chance for a municipal worker to raise the plight of colleagues who go unpaid for months. It is an opportunity for clothing and motor manufacturing workers to raise the alarm bells about the impact of the 30% tariff duty imposed on South African exports to the United States.

Cosatu was founded during the darkest days of apartheid. The Federation’s principles of worker leadership and accountability to workers remain cardinal principles.

The CC met as the economy faces numerous structural barriers to growth and dangerous headwinds threatening the jobs of thousands of workers.

The economy has been stumbling along 1% annual growth since 2008 with unemployment at an untenable rate of 42.9% and thousands of job losses from Goodyear in Uitenhage to Glencore across our mining and industrial belt.

Electricity is becoming unaffordable for working class households and the industrial foundries and smelters that employ thousands. We have seen dairy plants close in small towns in the North West and clothing factories shift from the Free State.

Reports paint worrying pictures about the future of key motor manufacturing plants that provide the lifeline for the economy in the Eastern Cape. The 30% duty on South African exports to the US poses a threat to thousands of agricultural and manufacturing jobs from the Western Cape to Limpopo.