London+pickets+focus+on+fresh+SA+atrocity,+Terry+Bell,+Business+Report

Business Report, Johannesburg, December 15, 2006
=London pickets focus on fresh SA atrocity=


 * By Terry Bell**

South Africa House, overlooking London's famous Trafalgar Square, was, throughout the latter 40 years of apartheid rule, the scene of almost constant pickets and protest.

But since the 1994 transition, it has become something of a symbol of hope, the diplomatic outpost of a country hailed for respecting human and labour rights.

Not any more. To the shame of local trade unions, the high commission in London has again been picketed by irate British trade unionists.

In what several local labour movement leaders see as a blunder of potentially mammoth proportions, South Africa House has refused to recognise the rights of British cleaners who work in the high commission to join the Transport & General Workers' Union (T&G). Quite apart from the principle involved, the T&G is one of the British unions that played a leading solidarity role in the anti-apartheid struggle.

The point has been made tellingly in a letter to President Thabo Mbeki from Piroshaw Camay, the former general secretary of the Council of Unions of SA, which, with the Federation of SA Trade Unions, formed the core of militant anti-apartheid unionism.

Out of these two federations came Cosatu and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu); Camay went on to become general secretary of Nactu.

Now director of the Johannesburg-based Co-operative for Research and Education, Camay wrote: "Today, I hang my head in shame that some South African bureaucrat sitting in London… refuses trade union rights to cleaners."

It is a sentiment widely shared across a labour movement that has become increasingly disillusioned with government policies over the past year. Despite regular protestations from Cosatu that its alliance with the governing party remains as strong as ever, tensions are showing to a greater degree than ever before.

Significantly, all three of the established union federations express similar views about what they feel needs to be done, and why the past year has been a far from brilliant one for the local union movement.

The year began with the unions protesting about the increasing casualisation of the labour market.

This column pointed out that the unions felt that the "any job at any price" mantra beloved of the free marketeers merely disguised what the unions have dubbed "the race to the bottom".

The year ends on exactly the same note.

"Casualisation and the move into the informal sector and into part-time and badly paid work is the main challenge we face," says Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.

Nactu general secretary Mahlomola Skhosana says: "The creation of decent, permanent jobs is now clearly the priority, and both the government and the private sector have to come to the party."

Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) general secretary Dennis George agrees, and adds that health and safety conditions have also worsened over the past year as a result of the onslaught of casual work.

But at the same time labour productivity has continued to grow, along with the wage and welfare gap, as the rich have got richer and the working poor proportionately poorer.

The price of food, which is the major expense for working class families, has risen faster than any other component of the cost of living index. According to some union estimates, this means that perhaps the majority of working families are worse off now than they were a year ago.

"And then we have the raising of interest rates, which will make life even more difficult for the lower paid," says Craven. He admits that the pleas and arguments of the unions about not raising interest rates have fallen on deaf ears.

These facts have steeled the resolve of the unions to fight back in the new year. But, while there is often a reluctance to admit it, these same facts are an indication of trade union weakness, some of it the result of internal squabbles.

The departure from Fedusa of the large Public Servants Association, the prolonged delay in the much-touted "super federation" of Fedusa, Nactu and the Confederation of SA Workers' Unions, and the bitter leadership battles in Cosatu have all had a deleterious effect.

However, there does seem a determination to overcome such problems and to build and rebuild confidence and collaboration to, as Skhosana puts it, "end fragmentation and organise more workers".

Says George: "I think we will see a greater move toward unity because so much of what has happened is totally unacceptable."

That is the message the unions will again convey to the government at the next bilateral talks. Several union officials have expressed the hope that these talks will finally persuade the government that the liberal supply-side economic policies now being pursued are a disaster.

But others are aware that it may take more than talk, however apparently logical the arguments, to bring about any change in policy direction; that the level of organisation, of unity and the willingness to take action is what will count.

On that note, I wish all readers the best for the festive season and send solidarity greetings to all in the labour movement.


 * From: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3594246&fSectionId=559&fSetId=662**

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