Proposed national minimum wage an insult, says Numsa president
A national minimum wage of R3,500 is an insult to SA’s working class, says National Union of Metalworkers of SA president Andrew Chirwa. Numsa, which was the largest affiliate of ANC-aligned union federation Cosatu in terms of membership before it was expelled, opened its 10th national congress in Cape Town on Monday. According to Numsa, the congress had 1,077 voting delegates representing 346,870 members of Numsa nationally. Chirwa’s address to the delegates was emotionally charged with multiple mentions of the Marikana shooting of 2012, where dozens of striking workers at Lonmin were shot dead by police. They were demanding a R12,500 salary. The national minimum wage is on Numsa’s agenda for its congress, where it will deliberate the issue and make a formal declaration. "The R3,500 national minimum wage pronounced by (Deputy President Cyril) Ramaphosa and the ANC government is an insult to the working class. The workers of Marikana who died for R12,500 per month were earning R4,50...
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