Numsa’s recruitment campaign bears fruitIn just one month, Numsa recruiters have signed up more than 7000 new members.

This will help to make up for the many workers that have lost their jobs through retrenchments and factory closures. But as Numsa shop stewards, Joey Mogapi and Lucien Windwaai say below, this shouldn’t stop now! Members and shop stewards should recruit unorganized workers all the time, especially those workers in your factory that are non-members.

Only when Numsa is strong in each factory and in each region can it really drive the revolutionary agenda that it has adopted.

During the month of July-August, Numsa welcomed organisers from Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Justina Jonas, an organiser for the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (Manwu) tells us of their experiences working alongside Numsa comrades.

How many new members has your region recruited?

1. Ekurhuleni 604 2. Eastern Cape 756 3. Hlanganani 1568 4. KZN — 5. Northern Cape 246 6. Mpumalanga 448 7. Sedibeng 451 8. Western Cape 667 9. Wits Central West 1830

Join Numsa now!Lucien WindwaaiNow that the ANC have won, it should keep its promises and deliver services to the people of South Africa.

Capitalists no longer serve us with retrenchment and short time notices but with company closure and liquidations.

In the process, families and children are the casualties.

But capital remains rich. Why must workers go to sleep at night without knowing what tomorrow brings?

The more people that lose their jobs, the higher the crime rate will get. As soon as our members have finished their severance packages, they turn to any route that can put bread on their tables, no matter the consequences.

Workers without unions are treated the worst because without an obstacle such as shop stewards, it is easy for capital to get rid of loyal workers. As Numsa we will not let this painful time break us! Join Numsa now!

Tembisa local ups its numbersJoey Mogapi

Recession has caused a lot of chaos in our country. It has forced most companies to retrench their staff. Our local has always and it is still trying to minimize job losses because most of our Numsa members are bread winners at their respective homes.In spite of the recession and retrenchments, Thembisa local has successfully managed to recruit about 250 workers.

Our local recruitment team has come up with a wonderful strategy; they make an appointment with a certain company and call workers to a meeting to tell them what Numsa can do or offer them and their families.

They tell them about the benefits that Numsa offers like funeral cover, bursaries for tertiary education for your children and how Numsa can represent you at the workplace if you are unfairly dismissed.

They bring a big change, making a major impact at our local and they are growing so fast on a weekly basis. The recruitment campaign has not come to an end; it’s still going on as we want more workers to join the organization in big numbers.

Sharing experiences across borders

Justina JonasManwu a Trade Union in Namibia representing the Metal Workers in Namibia was officially invited by Numsa to take part on the Numsa Recruitment Campaign which started in July 2009.

Numsa paid for only one participant from each country namely Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

However Manwu sent more participants to participate in this activity. “Our aim to bring more branch organisers was for them to gain skills and share experiences from the comrades they will be working with as well as to see how Numsa is operating in terms of recruitment, negotiations and many more,” says Bernard S Milinga.

This was a lifetime experience to see the strategies of recruiting,” says Likokoto Clarina (Branch Organiser, Manwu).

Even though we were placed in different regions as per our general secretary’s request, we all appreciated the hospitality we received from the comrades in the regions we were placed.

Since I came here I have attended about three meetings including the Motor Industry Bargaining Council Meeting.

I learnt a lot, especially now when Manwu is trying to bring the Motor Industry together.“Although the Manwu/Numsa relationship started way back, Manwu is looking forward to working closely with Numsa in terms of technical and labour issues.

A while back Numsa donated 4 cars to Manwu and recently they have donated us 4 photocopy machines,” says Milinga Manwu General Secretary.

We would like to say thank you to all the comrades we have met more especially thanks to Numsa leadership, international office, Hlokoza Motau and every comrade we met during our stay in South Africa.

A big thanks also to Elgin Brown Company (an engineering Company in Namibia) for sponsoring three tickets for our branch organisers to take part in this activity.

Source

Numsa News