Once more the shopping list of demands is long, but this year regions have broken all records. Motor tops them with 64 demands.

In his address to delegates on the second day of the NBC, deputy general secretary Karl Cloete warned of the danger of raising workers’ expectations with many demands.

He shared his long experience of collective bargaining in the trade unions. “You don’t win everything in collective bargaining. I’ve never seen you go in demanding full maternity benefits and come out with this; if you have succeeded in this then you must come and tell us and share with us.”

He said very often during the bargaining process, there is pressure to only agree on wages and defer the rest of the demands to other processes.

Demands can be easily undone
He also demonstrated how winning a demand can be easily undone by employers.

The 2010 agreement in the auto sector contained a ban on labour brokers. But auto employers have creatively undone the agreement – now Schnelleke operates inside almost all auto plants, supplying auto parts to the line but employed by Schnelleke at Schnelleke wage rates, which are below auto rates.

He urged delegates in commissions due to take place on the third day of the NBC to prioritise the long shopping list and to examine his presentation in detail.

The presentation gives comparisons of the actual effects of each region’s proposals. It shows that there is a huge gap between what regions are demanding – for example, one region is demanding a wage increase for petrol attendants that is six times higher than the region with the lowest demand.

The effect of regions’ proposals is also to undermine the wage models in the auto and tyre sectors, which currently set the lowest grade at a certain percentage of the highest grade.

Given these huge differences across regions and the fact that the proposals seek to undo the auto and tyre wage models, Cloete’s presentation reflects on proposed wage models for the different sectors.