Robertson fruit farm workers have taken their employer to Labour Court this week to fight for their right to strike and to get their jobs back after being dismissed more than a year ago.
Yazeed Kamaldien
News | 20 June 2014
More than 8.5 million people are receiving payments from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. If a bill before parliament’s labour committee is passed, benefits could be extended to a year.
GroundUp Staff
News | 17 June 2014
Gwede Mantashe, former chairman of the SA Communist Party, former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and now the powerful secretary-general of the governing ANC, sounded furious this week. In what must qualify as the most ironic case of “we’ve heard all that before”, he blamed the platinum belt strike and the consequent crisis on “white foreigners”.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 13 June 2014
The recent allegations of financial impropriety in the upper ranks of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union are only the latest in a string of similar scandals over the years. And it is little wonder that these have erupted, for many trade unions have transformed themselves into bureaucratic organisations with business links.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 11 June 2014
Like any good question, the answer to whether the platinum producers can afford the demands made by striking workers is: “it depends”.
Gilad Isaacs
Opinion | 9 June 2014
Misunderstanding and confusion about the platinum sector pay issue persists. And much of the media is to blame for repeating, without analysis, the public relations spin of the mining companies.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 2 June 2014
North West province mineworkers striking for better salaries are lobbying with the power of film to gain support for their cause countrywide.
Yazeed Kamaldien
News | 29 May 2014
Already hit by drought, small farmers in the Upington area will now have to pay fees to graze their animals on common land.
Selby Nomnganga
News | 29 May 2014
For all the special pleading by the major teachers’ union, Sadtu and the assertions by basic education minister Angie Motshekga that all is well, our schooling system is in crisis.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 26 May 2014
Tracey Davies explains how the Batlhabine community fought back against a mining company that ignored the law. She also argues that the Department of Mineral Resources should have done more to help.
Tracey Davies
Opinion | 20 May 2014
Nursing unions and the media noted last week that Monday was a day dedicated to nurses, to those who treat the sick and the ailing. And, as they did so, they continued to perpetuate a myth.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 19 May 2014
The voting is over, the counting complete — and there have been no major surprises. But for many it will be recriminations rather than celebrations that will follow what will almost certainly be regarded as a watershed election, signalling changes to come.
Terry Bell
News | 12 May 2014
Programming returned to normal at Khayelitsha’s Radio Zibonele Community Station on Sunday following two days of disruptions due to a strike by the majority of the station's staff.
Johnnie Isaac
News | 5 May 2014
The basic demand of May Day was for an eight-hour working day —eight for work, eight for leisure and eight for sleep. It is something we still have to achieve, not just in South Africa, but in many other countries.
Terry Bell
Analysis | 1 May 2014
The ongoing and increasingly bitter row within Cosatu boils down, basically, to a constitutional clash.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 29 April 2014
We are in the midst of all the usual fanfare, the pledges, promises, rows and contradictions that accompany any run-up to a major election. But the scheduled national poll on 7 May seems to be beset by more bickering, bitterness and fragmentation than normal — and this is a clear portent for the future.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 22 April 2014