Successes and challenges of the NUMSA Gender Committee

This session will try to cover policies adopted at the Congress and Central committee and will be divided in the following sections: collective bargaining, campaigns, gender structures/coordination, education, recommendations for discussion

NUMSA workshop on disclosure, 12 October 1995

Facilitator introduces him/herself first and the organisation, Turp. Just a brief background of Turp (very brief even if the group is familiar with this). You choose how you want to introduce yourself. You could want to give a bit of a background about yourself. I will have a separate illustration on newsprint, showing what I have done since birth up to now! One could recite that if they like. Group introduction: I propose a game be played, that will have everybody participating. The game is a "picnic game". You say to them we are a happy group who have just decided to go out on a picnic. So each and everyone of us has something to share with us all at the picnic. This must start with the first letter of your name. You (as facilitator) start by saying "for this event I will bring Aloe juice, for keeping healthy skins, because my name is Alfred". The next cde then say the same thing starting from me, the next also saying the same thing, until the last one. Then to see if you can still remember what they said you say it all. Rules: Cdes are not allowed to write down anything here, you could be helped with names and items forgotten during the game. Take a minute discussing how they felt about the whole exercise? You can mention the objectives of the w/shop at this stage from your understanding of the brief. You may say something about the participatory approach used in designing and presentation of this w/shop (methods used in Turp) as we believe that cdes have gone through a lot of experiences in their worklife and know the subject

The role of the educator

In South Africa, like all other capitalist societies, workers are forced to work for wages to buy the things they need to survive. The land, factories, mines, etc are privately owned by the capitalists. Because the capitalists own the land, factories and mines they control the wealth that is produced. With this wealth, as well as with the ownership of several newspapers and investment in radio and television stations, the capitalists can try and influence how people think. The capitalists also use the political rights and the wealth they have to influence how the government behaves. In South Africa, black workers have no political rights, because of apartheid. So they cannot influence the government in the same way as the capitalists. Workers standing on their own are also weak against their employers because the employers do not need any one particular worker. But the employers cannot do without all their workers. Machines without workers are useless. So if all workers can organise themselves to act together, to act collectively as it is called, then the balance of power changes. Capitalism needs the labour of workers to survive. So organised workers can be the most powerful weapon against capitalism. But the capitalists in South Africa are very powerful. They have a good friend in the apartheid state. Workers need to be well organised to challenge the power of the capitalists. But to build this strength, we need unity. We also need discipline and clear direction. The first step in making a union strong is for the union to have a very large membership. But the members cannot be sleeping members. They must understand the broader aims and objectives of the union and how the union fits into the wider struggle in South Africa. They must also have the skills and knowledge to be able to participate actively in all the activities of the union. Democratic practices increase the strength of workers' organisations and make them more effective. Democratic organisations are also necessary for building democratic societies because they make it possible for the masses of the people to participate in decisions about their lives

Gender activity report to the NEC of the 12th-14th November 1998

As per our Congress Resolution on Women Empowerment, the main objective for this year (1998) was to implement some of these resolutions. It is obvious that not all the resolutions could be realized this year, however, this department managed to execute the following as per our year plan: mechanisms to empower women in the union, develop education and training programmes on women’s needs, encourage male comrades to take part in gender activities/programmes to raise understanding of gender issues. The above issues were going to be actualized in the following way: national gender schools and gender workshops

NUMSA workers build co-operatives

There are two main co-operative activities that are supported by NUMSA. The one is SAWCO in Natal and the other is the project that is starting here in the East Cape. Does NUMSA have a policy on co-operatives? NUMSA in its Central Committee has taken a decision to support co-ops. But NUMSA is still busy thinking of how we can formulate a policy on co-operatives. We are working towards such a policy. So what is NUMSA's aim in giving support to co-ops? In other words, how can organised workers benefit from the support that NUMSA is giving to these co-op activities?

Week Plan: 20 July -24 July 1998 NUMSA Kwa-Zulu Natal Gender Workshop

Objectives: To develop an understanding of the current state of the world economy and its impact on women for the participants. To deepen the understanding of the South African economy in the context of globalisation. To develop an understanding of labour legislation in South Africa in the context of globalisation. To highlight the strengths and weaknesses of labour legislation for the labour movement and women workers in particular. To show how legislation can be used to advance the gains won by the labour movement. To help build capacity of women within the union movement to deal with challenges of globalisation.Facilitated by: International Labour Resource and Information Group (ILRIG

Wastage in the health workforce: some perspectives from African countries

BACKGROUND: Sub-Saharan Africa faces a human resources crisis in the health sector. Over the past two decades its population has increased substantially, with a significant rise in the disease burden due to HIV/AIDS and recurrent communicable diseases and an increased incidence of noncommunicable diseases. This increased demand for health services is met with a rather low supply of health workers, but this notwithstanding, sub-Saharan African countries also experience significant wastage of their human resources stock. METHODS: This paper is a desk review to illustrate suggestions that the way human resources for health (HRH) are trained and deployed in Africa does not enhance productivity and that countries are unable to realize the full potential expected from the working life of their health workers. The paper suggests data types for use in measuring various forms of "wastage". RESULTS: "Direct" wastage – or avoidable increases in loss of staff through factors such as emigration and death – is on the rise, perhaps as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. "Indirect" wastage – which is the result of losses in output and productivity from health professionals' misapplied skills, absenteeism, poor support and lack of supervision – is also common. HIV/AIDS represents a special cause of wastage in Africa. Deaths of health workers, fear of infection, burnout, absenteeism, heavy workloads and stress affect productivity. CONCLUSION: The paper reviews strategies that have been proposed and/or implemented. It suggests areas needing further attention, including: developing and using indicators for monitoring and managing wastage; enhancing motivation and morale of health workers; protecting and valuing the health worker with enhanced occupational safety and welfare systems; and establishing the moral leadership to effectively tackle HIV/AIDS and the brain drain