Join a Cosatu Union!

These are the targets for the different regions:

Eastern Cape

KZN 2800

Mpumalanga

Northern Cape

Hlanganani

Western Tvl

Wits Central West

Ekurhuleni

Western Cape

1000

2800

660

921

2300

670

1200

1200

1500

…increase membership amongst salaried staff in the auto sector

Numsa has won the right to represent salaried staff but only once it has organised 50% of the salaried staff in each auto plant.

And from Toyota , plans are already underway:

“By August 2005 we were concerned that Toyota was going to commence with a retrenchment campaign among staff employees. This concern was reinforced by certain statements that we heard and two documents that gave a strong indication that a retrenchment was going to be on the cards for 2005. Numsa had no staff representatives and only a little more than 200 members.

The shop stewards called a staff meeting with the intention of electing staff representatives and boosting recruitment. Three staff representatives were elected, they together with the shop stewards and enthusiastic volunteers had some immediate success. By December 2005 staff membership had risen to 486 or 21.4% of the staff at Toyota . By January the numbers had only increased to 507. The slowdown was possibly due to delays in registering new members because of the holidays.

We must regain momentum as our targets are now within our grasp. All that is needed is some recruitment effort from our members. Our first target is to reach 600 staff members, our second target is to pass the staff membership of the sweetheart staff union who had at the end of January 653 members or 28.7% of staff which places them below the recognition threshold for a Union at Toyota .

Greg Stanley , Toyota Numsa staff representative

* recruit new members in all other sectors

Last year each region was given a copy of the list of engineering workplaces together with membership numbers. Locals are using this to guide their recruitment plans.

* recruit unemployed learners in learnerships and workers employed by labour brokers

Often these workers are the most vulnerable and if we are not careful, the employer can use them to undercut organised workers’ wages. To organise these groupings is a win-win situation for all workers.

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