A new confederation of labour unions poses to strip members from existing federations.
The Confederation of South African Workers’ Unions (Consawu) will be holding its first congress in Johannesburg on March 8 before being officially launched later that day.
Henry Hendriks, chairperson of the confederation’s steering committee, said it would target the 350 registered unions that do not belong to other federations and that do not want join groups aligned to political movements.
But Consawu has already attracted unions belonging to the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) and the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), two of the three existing federations.
Joseph Maqhekeni, president of Nactu, said he did not know of any unions that had jumped ship.
He said that the news of a new confederation was sad. ”We have heard that a new federation is coming. We believe that it would be good for workers if Nactu, Fedusa, and Cosatu [the Congress of South African Trade Unions] will come together as one federation to make the [labour movement] more powerful.”
Thineas Malapela, liaison officer of the Public and Allied Workers’ Union of South Africa (Pawusa), said his union would move from Fedusa to the new confederation.
”We have transferred our membership from Fedusa to Consawu because … they are too conservative,” he said.
But Daniel van Wyk, Pawusa’s general secretary, said that the union had not joined the new confederation because it doesn’t have a mandate to do so.
Consawu, however, has listed the union as one of its members.
The confederation’s constitution and policies will be discussed by 400 delegates and national and international guests at the congress, where leaders will also be elected.
”This launch is the culmination of a vision held by many unions for a number of years. It is also the culmination of 18 months of negotiations between a large number of unions in the public and the private sector,” said Hendricks.
Unions representing about 390 000 South African workers have already joined the group.
”We wish to emphasise at the outset that Consawu is not being launched in competition to any existing labour organisation … Our intention is to promote labour unity and our target is the many unions which are not part of the existing labour federations,” Hendricks said.