With the basket price of shopping soaring at the highest rate, metal workers are intensifying the labour federation’s protest campaign to force government to bail out countless poor households clobbered by ever increasing prices with a stabilizing plan. 

The rise in the consumer price index, the treasury department’s official measure of the costs of living by 10,9 %, is largely due to rocketing fuel prices, food crisis, higher energy bills and interest rates. 

Countless families are suffering real economic pain, while government bureaucracy gets double performance bonuses payments for playing fast and lose with public finances. 

They are all jumping to gravy train of performance bonuses which are meant to encourage those talented and hard-working guardians of public interests when they do not display a commitment to finding detailed plans that would bring relief to hard-pressed households. 

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is to lead the protest action scheduled for July, culminating into a national strike on August 6, 2008 to demand that Government unveil “creative and constructive plans”, instead of telling us to cut back on non-essentials, by re-channeling fuel taxes among others, in order to help poverty-stricken families.

The Numsa central committee meeting has re-dedicated regions after conducting its assessment last week of the strike plans to initiate mobilization campaigns in collaboration with Cosatu provincial activities.

And, this will ensure that the protest action is effective and bring pressure to bear on government to act on workers’ demands.

Numsa leadership is wary of the fact that metalworkers would be severely affected by wage losses for two days despite that most sectors are on short time. Our collective principle of labour’s salvation is bound to deliver to workers some relief in the end, comes first.

It is also worrying that as business confidence index slipped by 7, 4% is expected to push for further interest rate increases in August, 2008, causing considerable distress on small and medium-sized businesses which create more jobs.

The protest action is scheduled to resume in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal on July 9, Mpumalanga, Free State and Northern Cape on July16, Gauteng, Limpopo and North West on July 23, culminating to a national stayaway and countrywide marches on August 6, 2008.

For more information contact:-

Mziwakhe Hlangani, Numsa national spokesperson

Cell phone: 082 9407116

E-mail address: mziwakheh@numsa.org.za

Source

Numsa News