SABC Negotiators Fail to Hear Reason

The Top Level CWU Negotiations Team today has made some scientific, well-considered and affordable suggestions to the SABC to broker a deal our members could live with.

Considering what the SABC is asking the honest, hard working members of CWU to do:

1. Live with the fact that personal debts keep mounting up while the SABC saves a bit of interest payment by witholding the worker increment. Workers must pay interest on more expensive credit each day - that's reality.

2. Ultimately, to agree to (meekly) bear the consequences of money wasted by an irresponsible and uncaring management team, by accepting a 2.2% drop in salary.

3. Forget that a R400 per month increase housing subsidy was promised in 2006 already, but not yet implemented 3 years later.

4. Forget that the Post Retirement Benefits should have been re-instated.

5. Forget that only friends and hired girfriends of management has received any promotions and increases in the past 10 years. Obscene promotions, and obscene increases. Suspending only two perpetrators is only a drop in the ocean

6. Forget that people who have no idea how to provide information, education and entertainment to the public, cost the public 7 figures annually - EACH!

7. Forget that the people in the paragraph above, employ several hired "girlfriends" each, who do little more than entertain the boss - at great cost to viewers and listeners - in staff morale and money.

7.1 Collectively, each of the abovementioned fat cats cost the public around 5 million each per month, for themselves, their lifestyles, their unecessary first class travelling, 5 star hotels, fancy food, and their paid young "girlfriends" who provide nothing but carnal favours.

7.2 Arrogantly, even though all and sundry calls for their suspension and investigation, they keep wasting these funds.


Comrades, we will meet on Friday for a way forward. The time has come to decide whether those that have been allowed for so long, to milk our beloved Public Broadcaster dry, should continue to be allowed to do so. Taking away R500 per month each from them in DSTV allowances just does not seem enough of a measure. The Board is wrong to expect us to carry this heavy burden for them. We insist the Board undertakes to pay us our money and our interest - or a settlement figure that makes sense. R2000 a month for the 1000 CWU members is a reasonable and acceptable figure - at justR24m (a hundredth of the salary budget), it is less than what is spent to maintain just 25 of the young "girlfriends". It is time some learn that public money is not there to pay for their carnal pleasures, but to retain real, honest, and hard working broadcasting specialists, like us.

Please attend the meeting on Friday - prepare to defend what is right.

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous6/8/09

    Which part did they not agree to? Down here in the regions we don't get all the info. I agree that losing DSTV is more symbolic than real but is still nice to see!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6/8/09

    The full feedback will be given by our leaders, who suggested many possibilties, aimed at alleviating some of the hardships of comrades who have known nothing but struggle while working for the SABC.

    Please ensure everyone attends Friday's meeting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6/8/09

    Comrades, why are we going on about management benefits/mismanagement when its a known fact that these things are being investigated. we want money in the bank as per the first point made i.e. debts to pay. we need to reach a settlement now and get on with our lives! that is the frustration of many as can be seen by the e-mails going around.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous6/8/09

    We should settle for what we can get now, as long as the SABC understands we will not back down afterwards.

    If we settle for 8.5 now (backdated), and 1.5 in December (backdated), we should NOT bend on the extra 2.2% - it must be paid (backdated) when the SABC can afford it.

    We must also defend our substantive issues, as soon as the SABC can afford it.

    It is therefore important that we assist the SABC to afford this, and co-operate with the Auditor General to make that task as easy as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6/8/09

    Comrades, let us not let the 2 days pay hold us to ransom. That can very easily be resolved by letting us put in leave for those days and/or by allowing us two sell leave.

    We should look at the year ahead - will these two days extra money (for me it will be R900) make such a big difference, when we are defending thousands of rands in short payment?

    On the other hand, we did attend work that day, and worked very hard at protesting what is wrong at SABC, so we should get paid for it.

    It is a difficult one, but it is not about huge amounts of money in the big scheme of things...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous6/8/09

    We should settle for 8.5% now (Backdated) and 1.5% in December (Backdated to April). 10 % is better than nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous6/8/09

    If we do settle, the SABC managers and their "girlfriends" should personally thank us for allowing them to continue with their high flying party lifestyle... but how?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous6/8/09

    I agree, we need money in our bank accounts, as it stands now BEMAWU and non-unionised members got their increase today. We cannot wait any longer we need the 8.5% now in our BANK ACCOUNTS.Please just sign the agreement. Now we must meet again of Friday its just too many meetings. Can we even get the backpay before month end?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous6/8/09

    I believe the masters have won us over by sheer frustration, but we must remember it was again BEMAWU that knifed us. What choice do we now have? Dear Leaders - tomorrow we will ask you to sign (without prejudice), but BEMAWU must go down...

    We must also make it clear that we want fair promotions starting right away - no more promotions reserved for silicon implants...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous6/8/09

    Dear Comrades, We are owed 12.2 % that's a fact. I do not mind our leaders signing for the 10% percent (8.5 now and 1.5 later) but we cannot give the SABC 2.2% discount on what they owe us. They need to give us the remaining 2.2% back dated to 1st April when they can afford it.
    Why Why Why Why must we suffer. I say NO to the proposal of 10% if we are not promised the 2.2% later. We want the full 12.2%. If we accept the 10% without the 2.2%, future negotiations will be a laugh. We cannot let SABC get away with it. We have sacrificed 2days for our 12.2%. WHY MUST WE BACK DOWN NOW. To our leaders please hear my plea, it's not about t he 12.2 %, IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE MATTER.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous7/8/09

    Comrades, due to the SABC's successful divide and rule strategy, we, for the 4th year in a row, have been forced to capitulate.

    There is simply no way to effectively unionise while one of the unions have members that have no understanding of collective bargaining.

    Our leaders, as they are, are fooled each year into trusting that the 3rd union, (whose members refuse to defend their own demands) will finally come on board.

    We are asking all members of that union brave enough to defend moarally correct worker demands, to join a real union as soon as possible.

    ReplyDelete

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