How will Vavi’s union differ from Cosatu?

Militancy is at the forefront of a new labour federation, writes Amy Musgrave.

The South African labour scene has a new labour federation on the way, and its founders and organisers claim it will immediately become the second-largest organised labour group behind Cosatu.

But the pertinent question for many in labour and outside is how the federation will be different to Cosatu.

It is the brainchild of axed Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi; Numsa, the country’s biggest union that found itself out in the cold after its expulsion from Cosatu; and a ragtag group of small unions (and sometimes leaders without actual unions) disgruntled at the treatment of Vavi and the metalworkers.

One look at a document prepared for the recent Workers’ Summit that sanctioned the new federation - to be launched by next year at the latest - also shows that its authors cannot escape the influence that Cosatu has had over the country’s labour movement, as well as their own thinking.

But the document only has praise for the Cosatu of yesteryear. The report reads: “...This workers’ summit is so crucial. It is our only chance to turn the tide and revive the militancy of the young Cosatu by bringing together the workers from all federations, including Cosatu, all unions, non-union workers and the unemployed.”

This theme - the revival of militancy followed by increased tension in employer-worker relations - will probably be the immediate focus of the federation.

And while the founders often speak of political non-alignment for their new body, this does not translate into a non-political stance. It just means a rejection of Cosatu’s (ANC-dominated) politics.

The new federation does not want a relationship with the ANC. It accuses Cosatu of being a shadow of its former self and of bowing to its political masters in the tripartite alliance instead of furthering the gains of workers.

The argument will find plenty of fertile ground among South Africa’s angry, excluded and dejected workers and poor communities. The country’s unemployment rate is now 26.4 percent, the highest it has been since 2005.

Inequality stretches the credulity of the Gini measurement. Oxfam recently published figures showing that a South African platinum miner would have to work 93 years to earn a chief executive officer’s single-year bonus.

And the racial dimension of wage inequality - the “apartheid wage gap” - has barely narrowed. The median wage of a black worker is R3 120, while for a white worker it is nearly four times as high, at R11 441.

Relations between labour and the state - governed by the ANC - are at an all-time low. The government has on occasion by-passed the National Economic, Development and Labour Council to get anti-worker policies into law, and although there has been talk about introducing a comprehensive social security network for the most vulnerable, nothing has come of this yet.

And of course it is the state that was responsible for the biggest massacre of workers in post-apartheid South Africa, when police gunned down 34 striking workers in the now infamous mining township of Marikana in 2012.

Because of all of these factors, supporters of the new federation believe that the time is ripe for its formation. At the group’s Workers’ Day rally, Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim warned that South Africa’s unemployment, poverty and inequality crisis could only be “solved through revolution”.

But how this revolution will be organised and play out is murky.

The delegates attending the summit - from 29 unions and the country’s third-largest labour federation, Nactu - did not have the time to get into the details.

And it turned out not all of them had a mandate from their members to join the new organisation or sign up to its manifesto.

But it is going to be a tricky path to walk.

Already organisers are differing over some of the key founding principles of the organisation.

At the summit, Vavi wrapped up the meeting and told delegates that “we agree to one industry, one union - one country, one federation”.

This is a cherished Cosatu principle, but its seeming imposition on a still-unformed new federation angered senior unionists present, who accused Vavi of speaking out of turn.

Indeed the summit’s discussion document adopts a less doctrinaire approach to worker unity, informed by a more sophisticated analysis of the modern conditions of work: “There can be no principle of 'one industry, one union - one country, one federation'. Developments in recent years in the labour market have blurred boundaries between different industries and sectors. We have also had to face a growing army of marginalised and vulnerable workers who may work in highly organised workplaces but who have none of the benefits of this because they are placed by labour brokers or sub-contracting companies.

“The new federation must ensure that workers belong to the union that is best placed to look after their needs and to allow all in a single workforce to benefit from collective bargaining.”

Perhaps the most immediate concern is money.

It’s likely also to be the factor that determines the ability of the new body to take root and thrive in the longer term.

It is understood that Numsa is still mostly sponsoring the new organisation.

And if it follows through on its ambitions to unionise workers who are marginalised and in the informal sector, it will not be able to rely on subscriptions, the traditional union income stream, to stay afloat.

“The paid-up membership” which was one of the founding principles of Cosatu should be the subject of discussion.

“Whilst a basic income for the union may be necessary, it needs to be flexible enough to cater for the thousands of marginalised and vulnerable workers who do not have a regular income, let alone an employer willing to deduct union subs,” the summit document reads.

It is not the first time in South Africa’s recent history that a senior unionist recently discarded from Cosatu - inevitably as a result of ANC divisions - has attempted to organise a rival federation.

We were here only seven years ago, when the Congress of the People broke away from the ANC and recruited expelled Cosatu president Willie Madisha to lead the new, anti-ANC federation, Consawu.

The unmitigated disaster of that venture, both in its political and union dimensions, should be a salutary lesson to the new breakaway formation.

THE STAR