Advice to all wage negotiators from an anonymous worker at X-Strata. Give up our CPI-X demand and go for witchcraft! Is this the secret of how X-Strata workers persuaded their management to raise their wage offer from 8,75% to 9,75% and achieved the top percentage increase in the wage negotiation round this year?

We are scientifically strong enough

This message is directed to our entire Numsa leaders and members due to problems that we are encountering daily from our management. Managers are very rough in the name of law.

Let witchcraft be alive so that we may see prosperity all over the union.

We normally do not use it to kill but to get what we want to get. During wage negotiations we make them sleep and snore, when they wake up they then just accept and sign every paper or document they get on the table without reading and understanding the contents of that document. This will uplift the living standard of Numsa members. That is the necessity of what witchcraft is all about.

Witchcraft is something similar to development and no-one can be against development. Our government encourages development all over the entire world. Witchcraft has to play a vital role in the workplace because it is another tactical weapon for any challenge that we may be faced with.

Our management use the law to protect anything they like, therefore that law itself is similar to their development and no-one can be against development. That is where our problems all started. We are the sons and daughters of bereaved planet earth and we got a gift from our ancestors, why don’t we use traditional dynamics of witchcraft?

2005/6 wage negotiations will be smooth, nice and better if witchcraft cannot be ignored. I wish all success to the shop steward committee of X-Strata Wonderkop, best at wage negotiations through witchcraft for many, many, many years to come. Let the struggle be continued. United we stand, divided we fall.

Matla ke a basebetsi Anonymous, X-Strata

A new definition of CEO

During the recent Pick ‘n Pay strike, workers revealed the real meaning of CEO to be Chief Exploitation Officer. This was after Pick ‘n Pay’s CEO received a 19% increase taking his package up to R12m while management refused to grant workers a 12% wage increase despite trading profit increasing 24,1% between 2004 and 2005.

Witnessed at that shop that used to be “just up your street!”

Keen to overflow the tills while its main opposition was ravaged by a strike, the store supervisor announced to harassed Sunday shoppers frantically piling up their trolleys before the shop closed at 13h00, that “the shop will be open until 14h00 today, so relax and enjoy your shopping”. Same store supervisor was then seen going from department to department to tell workers: “Did you hear that announcement. The shop will be open until 14h00 today”.

And they tell us that labour laws are not flexible!