/ 8 November 2007

New union confederation ‘a victory for workers’

A merger of the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) with the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) is a significant achievement that will unite workers in the country, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Thursday.

He was addressing Fedusa’s policy conference in Johannesburg ahead of the launch on Friday of the new South African Confederation of Trade Unions (Sacotu).

”The birth of Sacotu comes at a time when only five million workers are organised into trade unions, while over 12-million are not unionised,” said Mdladlana. ”For Sacotu to rise as a giant confederation, you will need to bring those workers under your banner.”

According to the minister, the merger of the two unions will require good leadership for it to grow.

”Leaders need to leave the comfort of their offices. Workers must know that their leaders are there to protect them. You must deploy more shop stewards on the floor to protect the workers against all forms of exploitation,” he said.

Fedusa president Mary Malete said the merger is a result of long and challenging discussions. ”Our intention is to unite our efforts to be able to approach the challenges of our country’s economy with the workers at the centre.”

Nactu president Joseph Maqekeni expressed support for affirmative action and said that he hopes workers will embrace their unity. ”There would be no transformation without affirmative action. We support government’s transformation policies.”

Malete will lead Sacotu with Maqekeni as deputy president.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has accepted the formation of Sacotu and has promised to study the programme and constitution on which the new structure is to be founded.

Spokesperson Patrick Craven said: ”Cosatu hopes that the new confederation will not take the narrow, short-sighted road of trying to become a rival to Cosatu.

”We trust that they will always remember that it is the employers, not Cosatu, who are their main enemy, and give that enemy no grounds for thinking that they now have the chance to play divide-and-rule between different workers’ organisations and thus seriously weaken the union movement.”

According to Cosatu, talks with the new leadership will be welcomed.

”We appeal to the leaders of Sacotu to keep the door open to talks with Cosatu, so that we can move towards the strong, united federation we all aspire to create, and on which we are ready to engage the new leadership at any time or place,” said Craven. — Sapa