Join forces rather than stone us, Vavi tells unions

5 September 2016

Johannesburg – The National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) of South Africa claims that a new labour federation, under the leadership of Zwelinzima Vavi is simply a “copy and paste” of its position.

The NTUC in a statement criticised Vavi, former general secretary of Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), and other leaders from the new labour federation for “copying” its stance of being politically independent.

This follows media reports last week, that Vavi and others would be starting a new labour federation, which is non-politically aligned.

However, Vavi told Fin24 on Monday that if the NTUC feels that they share the same ideals, then the union should join the federation. “All those that identify with our principles should join forces with us, instead of throwing stones at us.”

The new labour federation will be based on the principle that workers’ movements are independent of their bosses or political stances, said Vavi. There will be a focus on meeting workers’ needs which includes the protection of their rights, the demand for a minimum wage and jobs.

Unions must be democratic, and controlled by workers in practice and not just written in their declarations, he said. Vavi added that he wanted unions that fight inequality and poverty and those that are opposed to imperialism and are “socialist oriented”, and who want to build an “egalitarian society”.

But the NTUC spokesperson Maston Phiri said that the federation was not “unique” in its approach. “They just reintroduced our position,” he said.

The most “pressing” issues NTUC has with the new federation is that it is using “political independence” as a tool to promote itself. “The federation says it is welcoming workers regardless of the political parties they are coming from,” said Phiri.

The NTUC, founded in 2014, represents over 2 500 workers, across different sectors. So far Vavi said the federation represents over 2 million workers under 57 different unions. “It’s just a drop in the ocean, but we are happy,” said Vavi.

“We must stop the fragmentation of unions, South Africa has a record number of trade unions,” he said.

The numbers of workers within unions are declining, indicating that unions are not doing what they should to inspire workers to join, he added. About 76% of workers do not belong to unions.

City Press reported that Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) would be joining the federation, which also includes The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa).

This article first appeared on Fin24, see here.