MEDIA RELEASE
1 May 2024
SUMMARY: The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) has issued its annual May Day Message, focusing on issues such as its call to have 16 August declared South African Workers Day as well as the economic hardship faced by the South African working class. It reflects on the recent spate of mass retrenchments, commenting that workers’ rights have eroded in the past 30 years. The Union reiterates why it resolved to form the Labour Party, in order to take the campaign for workers rights right into Parliament.
In his annual May Day Message, AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa reflected on the gains of the international labour movement over the past centuries. He indicated how the exploitation of those without power by those in power is as old as history itself, quoting from the Holy Bible (James 5:1-4) to illustrate this.
“All of us seem to forget that workers’ rights are undeniably also human rights, and human rights have been the result of centuries of struggle”, said AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa. “If it was not for the labour movement internationally and the struggle for workers’ rights, we would live in a very different world today. There would be no basic conditions of employment, there would be working hours, there would be no leave, there would be no time off for lunch, there would be no rights to form unions and be represented by them. In fact, there would be no general acceptance that work on weekends and public holidays are not mandatory”, he said.
“The inherent power imbalance between owners of business and those working there has always, and always will cause exploitation and injustice. As James 5:4 reads, the ‘wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you’”, Mathunjwa said.
Continuing with his May Day message, Mathunjwa again reminded the nation that AMCU had since 2018 called on its members not to celebrate May Day on 1 May, but rather on 16 August. While recognising the international value and significance of 1 May to mark the day of international workers’ struggles, Mathunjwa reminded South Africa of our own historic struggles and the significance of these for our own people.
“We, as AMCU, have the greatest respect and solidarity for our brothers and sisters in other countries. We know that they waged their own wars and fought their own battles against oppression and exploitation”, he said. “We know that 1 May is most significant in the United States [of America], where hundreds of thousands of workers launched a nationwide strike for better working conditions in the late 1800s”, he added.
In 1886, after a protest on Haymarket Square in Chicago, police killed and wounded several workers. This was later referred to as the Haymarket Massacre, and became a rallying point for the labour movement in the USA and abroad. Until today, May Day or Workers Day is celebrated as a public holiday in 66 countries, even though it is barely recognised in the country of its origin, the United States of America.
“We salute our comrades in the US and all over the world in commemorating the Haymarket Massacre. However, we must never forget that in South Africa we have had our own massacre”, said Mathunjwa. “On 16 August 2012, on a windy and dusty day on the koppie in Marikana outside Rustenburg, our democratically elected government brutally killed 34 workers who were protesting for a better life”, he recalled.
“We have therefore said, and we will keep on saying, that our government must declare 16 August a public holiday so that it can be celebrated as our own South African Workers Day. We have our own massacre, which signals the ultimate sacrifice made by our comrades for the economic emancipation of the working class”, Mathunjwa said.
Since 2018, AMCU has stopped organising mass events on 1 May 2021 like most other trade unions do in South Africa. Instead, the Union has called on its members to keep on working on 1 May and request their employers to take leave on 16 August to commemorate the Marikana Massacre. AMCU also wrote to all major mining houses in this regard, and formally requested State President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare 16 August a public holiday. President Ramaphosa has not responded to AMCU’s request.
“We know that the struggle for workers is far from over, and in this current climate of mass retrenchments and the jobs bloodbath in the mining sector”, he said. “As this year is the 30th anniversary of our democracy, the neoliberal forces in our captured state have collaborated to erode workers rights. Just look at the Labour Relations Act [LRA]… It was enacted in 1995 just after the so-called dawn of democracy, but since then many of the workers’ rights such as the right to strike have been eroded, whereas the rights of multinational companies have been promoted”, Mathunjwa said.
AMCU has made several clarion calls for amendments of the LRA and more specifically for section 189 which deals with retrenchments based on operational requirements and section 197 that allows companies to sell their businesses as a going concern. It has consistently pointed out that the current government has sold out the people by adopting a neoliberal approach to economic policy by means of austerity measures that erode the social wage and promote individual gains.
“There is no country in the world where big business can merely lay off workers to secure their super profits”, said Mathunjwa. “We are the only country where multinationals can come and loot our minerals and, when they are tired of looting, they can fire workers as the see fit, with absolutely no consequences”, he said. “Section 197 is nothing but modern slave trade, where workers are sold like cattle or animals along with a business, without any having any say in the process”, he said.
“We must support these struggles not just as a union, but as a class. It has become a class issue, and it is time that the workers speak – all the way into Parliament”, Mathunjwa said. “This is why our [2023 National] Congress resolved that we must establish the Labour Party, to be a home for all trade unions and progressive organisations campaigning for the socioeconomic rights of workers, the unemployed and citizens of South Africa”, Mathunjwa concluded.
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For interviews: President Joseph Mathunjwa