2005-12-03,+Sweet+talk,+right+hook,+Vavi+interview,+Robinson,+M+and+G

= **'Sweet talk -- then right hook'** =



Interview with COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi

Mail and Guardian, 02 December 2005 08:05**
 * Vicki Robinson

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s announcement that she will propose an independent review of the country’s labour legislation to Cabinet in January has irked the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

“We are very angry,” said Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu general secretary. “About two weeks ago we had a major meeting with the deputy presi-dent and at no point did she tell us that there would be this review.”

Interviewed ahead of Cosatu’s 20th anniversary celebrations in Durban at the weekend, Vavi also warned that the tripartite alliance would reach “breaking point” unless the pillars of its 2015 Plan are achieved by that date.

The plan, which Cosatu launched at its eighth national congress in 2003, is premised on a closer relationship between members of the tripartite alliance, particularly on policies designed to stem unemployment and poverty. Its two elements are building working-class power and ensuring quality jobs over the next decade.

“I don’t regret for a single day that we formed the alliance,” he said. “But the breaking point will come because of the economic conditions of workers.

“The first decade of democracy has deepened inequality in the country. If more people are casualised and the inequality gap continues to widen, we will have to question the relevance of the alliance.”

Mlambo-Ngcuka’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgisa) aims to boost economic growth to 6% of gross domestic product by 2014.

As part of the initiative, she told the Sunday Times, she would propose to Cabinet that an independent review be conducted of the unintended consequences of South Africa’s new labour legislation and the size of the country’s unemployment problem.

But Vavi said “the Asgisa discussion document has not seen the doors of the alliance”.

“They sweet-talk us and then give us a terrible right hook when we think we’re in the midst of friends.”

Labour is already nervous about attempts to tamper with former labour minister Tito Mboweni’s raft of labour laws. Deputy Finance Mini-ster Jabu Moleketi proposed to the African National Congress’s national general council in June that a dual labour market should be created by relaxing labour laws. The recommendation appeared to have been shelved after opposition from the unions.

According to Kanyo Gqulu, Mlambo-Ngcuka’s adviser, her suggestion that there would be a review of labour legislation was made in the context of her consultation with business about the Asgisa. They have requested that the labour legislation be reviewed “but there has been no agreement that the laws would be changed”, said Gqulu.

Questioned about the challenges facing Cosatu in the 21st century, Vavi said the federation’s future would depend on a “massive re-engineering” of its recruitment tactics, particularly in sectors such as manufacturing, construction and services, where casualisation is endemic.

The growth in casual labour had resulted in a 20% membership attrition in service industries. Casualisation partly explained why only 30% of the private sector -- as opposed to 80% of the state sector -- was unionised.

In addition, the number of people surviving in the informal economy had doubled to 2,5-million over the past 10 years.

Vavi said that how to organise this informal and casual sector was a worldwide conundrum for trade unions. It would take a major change of approach from the organisation of smokestack industry in the 1980s, when Cosatu was launched.

A report was being prepared on this issue for the central executive committee meeting next May. Cosatu was in the final stages of forming a trade union for the informal sector.

“There is no longer an automatic attachment to trade unions,” he said. “Unions need to teach casual workers that the labour laws protect them as much as those in the formal sector.”

Vavi also said that Cosatu was reviewing its membership subscription structure, currently based on an annual blanket fee. “How do you expect seasonal farm workers and street vendors to pay the same as the general secretary of Nehawu?” he asked.

On Jacob Zuma, who will be the keynote speaker at Cosatu’s anniversary celebrations, Vavi said: “Everybody is missing the point about our support for him. It’s purely about our belief that he has been unfairly treated, and that does not translate into support for him as future president.

“It would be very naïve to say we’ve been sidelined in the alliance and that to correct this, all we need is a Zuma presidency.”

From: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?area=/insight/insight__national/&articleid=258318