2005-12-01,+First+step+to+superfederation,+Terry+Bell,+Business+Report

= First step to superfederation =


 * Business Report, Johannesburg, November 30, 2005**


 * By Terry Bell and Sapa**

Johannesburg - The first step towards a new "superfederation" of labour will be taken this afternoon. The country's three politically non-aligned trade union federations - the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa), the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) and the Confederation of Workers' Unions (Consawu) - will today announce their decision to unite.

Discussions about coming together have been going on for most of this year and were given a boost in September when the general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Guy Ryder, visited South Africa.

He arrived fresh from a meeting in Brussels where the ICFTU had agreed to unite with the smaller World Council of Labour (WCL) to form a "new world trade union organisation".

Both Fedusa and Nactu, as well as the country's largest federation, the ANC-aligned Cosatu, are members of the ICFTU. Consawu is affiliated to the WCL. The steps taken by the international bodies are, to a degree, being emulated here.

Today, at the Fedusa headquarters in Roodepoort, the three federations will announce the formation of four committees to oversee the process of amalgamation.

Details have yet to be finalised on the administrative and financial structures of the new federation, which does not yet have a name. "This will be announced later," says Nactu general secretary Mahlomola Skhosana.

The three federations, their affiliates and any other independent unions intending to join the new body will submit the final unity proposals to their respective general meetings for approval by their members.

However, the federations have apparently decided that "for the sake of restoring trade union credibility", an accurate membership audit should be conducted and published by the time the new federation is formally launched. The three federations now claim a combined membership of 1.1 million, with Fedusa accounting for nearly 550 000.

Since several other independent unions have also indicated their interest in affiliating to the new superfederation, the 1.1 million mark could be surpassed, even if some federation memberships are inflated. Cosatu claims 1.8 million members in its 19 affiliated unions, but this too is an unaudited figure.

The registrar of trade unions has confirmed that of the 345 unions currently on its books, "more than 200" are in danger of being struck off for not having submitted up-to-date financial statements, let alone audited membership figures.

All three of the amalgamating federations were quick to stress that they did not see the new federation as being in competition with Cosatu. But since the new federation will remain, as a matter of principle, non-aligned in a party political sense, this is clearly how it will be perceived.

During the early unity discussions between Fedusa and Nactu, both Skhosana and the outgoing Fedusa general secretary, Chez Milani, insisted that being non-aligned did not mean non-political. The same non-partisan approach applies to Consawu.

This concept of support for policies rather than parties is the crucial but in effect the only issue that stands in the way of the expressed goal of all the federations: to have a single trade union umbrella organisation in South Africa.

Pre-empting the merger, Cosatu said it had "always supported the vision of one united trade union federation". Cosatu warned against the initiative taking the narrow, short-sighted position of becoming "a significant rival to Cosatu".

From: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3015695