Dear Numsa News
It may sound crazy but it feels like an Oscar! I am referring to the long-service award that I got from my employer – 10 years in the same organisation, Hawker Siddeley Transformers, is indeed a milestone.
What is striking is that all these long-service awardees have put in the best of their career years into this organisation – this is amazing!!

I am sure if any of the long-service awardees get their biographies written, this period of our lives will definitely receive focused coverage! All have together learnt many things, grown, and been loyal and dedicated.

Professionally and personally I have matured a lot in these years and my organisation has a very big role to play in my growth – when I say organisation, it goes without saying that I am talking the people who make the organisation.

I want to thank my mentors, who put their faith in my potential and assigned responsibilities which helped me grow professionally, and my colleagues, who bring in those moments of happiness and belonging that keep me going and who make it possible for me to deliver on expectations.

I also want to thank my spouse who inspires me to face and live my life, who supports me in balancing my workload and personal life, and my friends who shape my thoughts and make me better every day.

All praise is to God who is in the form of People around me!
“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals.
To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”

A luta continua!
Willie Morris is a Numsa shopsteward at Manyati local.

Dear Numsa News,
I want to take this opportunity to share skills training information with Numsa Youth Forum members at all levels of the organisation.

The forum’s national office bearers recently had an opportunity to attend a skills training workshop at the Vincent Mabuyakhulu centre.
It has come to our attention that shop stewards don’t take skills training seriously at shop floor level.

But youth forum NOBs do take them seriously – and it as it is one of our objectives to give workshops to young shop stewards so that they understand the importance of this training.

I wish to thank the national skills training coordinator Malebo Mogopodi for the good job he has done.

Numsa is one of the unions that has fought and continues to fight for the implementation of the Skills Development Act.

We have noted that some employers submit workplace skills plans (WSPs) and annual training reports (ATRs) without consulting employees, and we are pleased that new regulation give trade unions the power to fight for the implementation of the Act with effect from 1 April 2013.

The Act stipulates that an employer who has a recognition agreement with a trade union or unions in their workplace must provide evidence that a WSP or ATR has been subject to consultation with the recognised trade union or unions.

The WSP or ATR must be signed off by the labour representative appointed by a recognised union.
Mpho Hlongwane is the Numsa youth forum national chairperson

Dear Numsa News,
I call all youth of South African unemployed and employed to join the Numsa youth forum campaigns. The objective of the campaign is to assist the people of South that voted for the better life for all. The major campaigns are:

1. youth wage subsidy

2.labour brokers

3.e-toll

4.government corruption

Numsa shopstewards must mobilise workers and communities to support these campaigns.

Numsa youth forum leadership at all levels of the organization must lead these campaigns.

Mpho Hlongwane is Numsa youth forum national chairperson

Dear Sir/Madam
Thanks for “forcing” Aerosud to comply with main agreement.
Now the big question is how they will provide compensation for all the years of hard work by employees who did not receive benefits or back pay for the 8% increase, as they received 6.1 % last year.

The employer was not prepared to talk to non-scheduled employees until you stepped in.

Can the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council lease intervene on behalf of workers with limited-duration contracts, as the employer might not compensate them adequately?

Please do everything in your power to fix our other concerns and take into account the hardships endured by employees every day.

Yours sincerely, Johannes Dlamini, a concerned employee.

Dear Numsa News
I wish to register my happiness during the time that I was a member of this giant union, Numsa.

In 2004 when my company was liquidated I struggled a lot to deal with the situation, as all the workers were on my neck.
During that time the organiser was hospitalised and ultimately passed on (may God bless his soul).

But with the education I obtained from the union I managed to confront the company head-on until the last day, when its property was sold and the money was divided according to the number of the claimants, their length of service and rate of pay.

Everybody received a payout.
This is why I want to express my happiness to the entire family of the metal industry, even though I am not working in it any more.

Lastly, I applied online for a surplus last year and in January this year I recieved my payment.

Keep it up! Ntsimbhi kayigobi, angeke isagotshwa eGermany sesizozigobela yona lana e Mzantsi.

Jan Masemola is a former local shopsteward at Makhudu-pheko, Benoni.