NUMSA Bulletin 18 - Time to face the Bosses

Numsa's National Bargaining Conference is almost upon us. Wage negotiations in all Numsa's sectors will start from May. Bargaining is the focus of this Bulletin (pages 12-28). We give you some basic facts and figures to arm yourselves for centralised bargaining. We also include information on the new black economic empowerment (BEE) codes as well as employee share ownership schemes (esops). You will need this information to negotiate in your own companies. Division rocked the Cosatu congress last year. Woody Aroun summarises a paper of Joel Netshitenzhe on the issue of factions within organisations while Alex Mashilo gives his own views on how to deal with them. Cosatu's recent Central Executive Committee analysed the current political conjuncture. See if you agree with it and prepare yourself for the challenges that face you in a year in which both the SACP and the ANC will be holding key conferences. What do you think of Desai's challenges to Cosatu? Are you up to them? Take yourself through Enver Motala's piece on education. Did your schooling give you these critical skills? Are your children getting these skills from their schools? Are Numsa's education courses helping you to grasp those skills that you didn't get at school? And what about education and training at work - are these filling the gaps in your education