Workers organise general strikes for decent working
conditions
Millions of workers' supported COSATU's call for a week of rolling
mass action starting August 18 to demand changes to the Basic
Conditions of Employment Bill.
About 95% of COSATU members struck in the Eastern Cape on August
19. On August 19, it was the turn of workers in KwaZulu-Natal and
Mpumulanga to strike. On August 20, the working class mobilised in
the Northern Cape, Free State and Western Cape. On August 21, we
workers brought the NorthWest, Northern and Gauteng provinces to a
halt. 20,000 marched in Johannesburg and 10,000 in Pretoria. Rallies
were held in other major cities as well as in small country dorps.
The strikes were to demand that the Bill stipulate a 40-hour work
week, six months maternity leave (four months paid), no child labour
(under 16 years old). COSATU also opposed clauses, which would allow
these basic conditions to be "varied" (i.e. allowing bosses to ignore
these rules in certain conditions). A 24-hour general strike took
place on 2 June around the same issues.
The capitalists -including Black business in NAFCOC - opposed
these demands.
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