Zwelinzima Vavi. File picture: Chris Collingridge Zwelinzima Vavi. File picture: Chris Collingridge
Johannesburg - Axed Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi believes the sacking of 228 SA Post Office workers affiliated to the Influential Information and Communication Union of SA (IICUOSA) is linked to workers not belonging to a Cosatu union.
Vavi addressed over 60 workers who marched to the Telecommunications and Postal Services Department in Pretoria on Tuesday demanding that Minister Siyabonga Cwele “intervene”.
He said the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the majority union at the Post Office, and affiliated to Cosatu, did not have the interests of workers at heart. The two unions have criticised each other in the media, with the CWU describing the IICUOSA as “desperate and dangerous”.
“Those working in the Post Office know exactly the price workers must pay for the fact that the unions sleep in the same bed as the bosses with the government,” said Vavi, who is currently on a charm offensive to attract unions to his new federation.
IICUOSA has been battling with the parastatal to get its members reinstated after they embarked on an illegal strike in June.
IICUOSA president Desmond Moeketsi told The Star that union leaders had encouraged workers to stand their ground.
The union handed over a memorandum of demands to the department, which included that permanent part-time workers be employed full-time.
It has given the department seven days in which to respond.
heidi.giokos@inl.co.za
@heidigiokos
THE STAR