/ 23 November 2007

Super union, but will it work?

Mary Malete, the newly elected president of the South African Confederation of Trade Unions (Sacotu), will have her job cut out bringing workers together from different cultural backgrounds to strengthen responses to changes in the country’s workforce and labour practices.

Sacotu was launched two weeks ago as a precursor of a super federation to be formed from a merger between the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), a largely white-collar union, and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu), with Africanist and black consciousness leanings.

The two have a combined membership of between 700 000 and 800 000, making Sacotu the second-largest labour organisation after Cosatu, which has 1,9-million members. Unlike Cosatu, Sacuto will operate as a non-politically aligned labour organisation.

The labour movement has experienced a decline in membership because of retrenchments and casualisation.

‘The reason why the [merger] process has taken so long is that, as trade union federations, we do not want anyone to lose their jobs in the process,” says Malete.

However, sources within the two federations have said the reason behind the delay is that Fedusa was unhappy with Nactu’s financial status. Nactu leaders, on the other hand, have accused Fedusa of failing to transform.

‘While most of Fedusa’s membership base is black, the leadership positions are still dominated by whites,” says a senior Nactu official. Fedusa general secretary Dennis George was not available for comment.