UPDATE
There are similarities between the talks between SEIFSA and NUMSA and the money game monopoly. Playing monopoly is of no relevance except for the children playing the game. Forthem this can be a serious affair.
This brief is therefore not really an update. This is simply sharing what we read in respect of the very secret talks (with the impact of a private game of monopoly between children) between SEIFSA and NUMSA.
Why are their talks irrelevant?
- SEIFSA is an employers federation – which in the context of the bargaining council is of absolutely no relevance at all. SEIFSA (their 1300 affiliated employers members collectively employing approximately 100 000 employees) has, in terms of the Labour Relations Act which governs bargaining councils, no role whatsoever to play in the affairs of the MEIBC.
- SEIFSA’s 4 affiliated employer organisations on the Management Committee (MANCO) of the MEIBC (4 out of 21 seats – less than 20 percent of employer representativity), collectively representing approximately 800 employers (8% percent of employers in the Industry).
- These 4 employers’ organisations collectively employ approximately 82 000 employees (25 percent of the Industry).
- A SEIFSA/NUMSA deal therefore means a deal between NUMSA and 8 percent of employers in the Industry, employing approximately 25 percent of employees in the Industry.
- It is with this level of representativity that these SEIFSA affiliated employers will attempt to have their agreement extended to non-parties.
With theabove mentioned facts in mind, you decide on SEIFSA’s relevancy in these negotiations.
Save to say that the Industry must take note that SEIFSA prefers to spend their time in a room with NUMSA – a hard line socialist movement and a proponent of the Bell Pottinger ‘white monopoly capital’ narrative, instead of searching for long term (real solutions) for the Industry, all in total secrecy, all of this is of no relevance to a decimated Industry.
Oh, just before I forget: this SEIFSA says there won’t be a strike this week.
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism
Thomas Jefferson