SAMWU NEWS Volume 1 - Rebuild and Unite

As a democratic Union and driven by its members, it is imperative for us to bring about the transformation within the Cape Town Branch and the City Council. The Shopstewards, our elected representatives, cannot do it by themselves and therefore need the support and input from their members they represent. We need to: develope new leadership and build capacity within the organisation, seriously address workplace democracy and joint decision-making address gender equality at the workplace, develope the skills and competencies of workers, vigorously implement education, training and development programmes through Affirmative Action for those previously disadvantaged. WHAT IS YOUR ROLE ? We should also dissuade other SAMWU members from crossing over to other Unions for material benefits but that they look closely at the history of these Unions and whether they can adequately protect the rights of workers and whether they have the interest of workers at heart. We have seen how other Unions are recruiting members by offering them all kinds of elaborate schemes, but not addressing the fundamental issues of workers’ rights, protection of job security, the right to strike and the question of narrowing the discriminate wage gap. We need to protect and fight against these policies of differentiation between workers. As we can see from the above, many challenges and work are lying ahead of us to build and unite the strong union. Now is the time - let us face the challenges together to build strong union and worker leadership