Cosatu+has+key+to+Adult+World,+Renee+Grawitzky,+Business+Report


 * Business Report, Johannesburg**, **January** **17, 2007**


 * Cosatu has key to Adult World, but must shed its teen issues**


 * By Renee Grawitzky**

As our democracy moves into some rather turbulent prepubescent years, Cosatu celebrated its 21st birthday last month, marking its formal transition into adulthood.

Cosatu was born into a chaotic world, where predictability and security were not the order of the day. Its birth and early childhood were traumatic as it faced various forms of abuse from the apartheid state. As a teenager, it dealt with some normal growing pains as the country attempted to consolidate its democracy.

Now that Cosatu is 21, it can, as academic Ashwin Desai said, "safely visit Adult World" and get a key to allow it to break its reliance on its parents. Desai told Cosatu at a workshop marking its 21st that it had reached a "symbolic rite of passage into a time when you can stop looking upwards for guidance and even sustenance. You can make your own decisions without seeking the approval of The Father."

Having a key to enter any place, including crossing the threshold into Adult World, can make anyone feel invincible - even the average 21-year-old who still has the capacity to be naive. The realities of Adult World can, however, prove daunting, especially for those who have not prepared for the challenges of adulthood.

The much publicised, still unresolved leadership spat that dominated Cosatu's ninth national congress in September is an indication that the federation has some way to go in dealing with teenage squabbles and tantrums, which could partly be a manifestation of the failure to deal decisively with internal organisational challenges.

The lack of progress, by Cosatu-affiliated unions and the federation itself, in implementing strategies to deal with the changing world in which they operate is highlighted in a report on the state of Cosatu released in August by its research arm, the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (Naledi).

Organisational renewal or development is not a new issue for the federation. It was first dealt with by the 1997 September Commission.

The commission made numerous recommendations for reorganising Cosatu and developing the organisational capacity of unions.

It proposed that Cosatu and its affiliates "adopt a systematic and long-term programme for organisational renewal, focusing on building effective, democratic and innovative organisation".

For the first time since the federation was formed, organisational reforms became a key focus of debate at Cosatu's sixth national congress in 1997. Virtually all the commission's recommendations on strengthening the federation's structures were adopted, as well as those relating to a campaign for organisational renewal.

A number of organisational concerns, such as those relating to leadership, staffing and the brain drain in the union movement from the early 1990s, were first raised in a 1994 Naledi report titled Unions in Transition: Cosatu at the Dawn of Democracy.

Despite the focus on organisational renewal and the commitments that were made in that regard, implementation has been problematic. Efforts to resuscitate the organisational renewal programme and ensure the implementation of many 1997 September Commission recommendations began at a 2001 central committee meeting and were renewed in 2003.

The renewal process was never about changing Cosatu's vision, purpose and character, but rather about trying to "return to and retain the democratic traditions and principles of the federation while confronting new challenges, which have a tendency to erode these".

But the Naledi report points out that the process should take into account the fact that union practices are "increasingly sliding away from the historical traditions. In a number of its organisational renewal reports, the federation notes the erosion of progressive union movement traditions and practices, such as worker control, solidarity and working class consciousness.

"Some of these have been eroded as a result of the changes in the economic and ideological environment … and the resulting pressures on unions and individuals to adapt to values and practices that are contrary to the principles and vision of the workers' movement."

The key elements of the organisational renewal programme, as highlighted in the Naledi report, include:

· Strengthening grass roots work (membership benefits and workplace-type issues);

· Changing the landscape of the labour movement through mergers, the expansion of membership to the informal sector and the unorganised, and union demarcations; and

· Building Cosatu's engines (improving staff capacity, leadership and management).

Naledi argues, based on a survey of affiliates' organisational review processes, that Cosatu's focus has largely been on using mergers and other structural changes to respond to the new environment.

Little or no attempt has been made to develop "concrete ways of reviewing the extent to which unions, leaders and members have shifted their orientation and focus in ways that undermine the principles and values of the movement".

Equally important has been the lack of progress in implementing organisational renewal within Cosatu's head office.

Numerous secretariat reports lament the lack of progress in implementation, raising many unanswered questions. Is it about lack of political will, internal political conflicts, lack of resource allocation, or organisational and capacity problems?

The Naledi report says it is clear that organisational renewal processes are often constrained by the very problems they seek to address, such as lack of finances and inadequate capacity and capabilities. Ultimately, if the affiliates are to take organisational renewal seriously, the head office has to lead by example and begin to implement its own resolutions.

In view of the personality and leadership dynamics in Cosatu, now may be a good time to bring in external expertise to look at the entire organisation as one way of taking forward its organisational renewal commitments.

External expertise does not mean yet another commission of inquiry that will not have the power to implement changes, but organisational development specialists who will be given the mandate to drive change and ensure its implementation.

The brief for an organisational development specialist is almost written already and is largely contained in the 1997 September Commission. Such a process should focus, among other issues, on staffing (training and development, career pathing and retention strategy); a review of work processes and departmental structures; organisational culture; and management styles, including ways to improve leadership and other systems.

Unions around the globe are in transition. They are grappling with challenges very similar to those of their counterparts in South Africa, which are viewed as global leaders within the international labour movement. In the coming years, the current leadership will have to begin to show its ability to lead and open itself up to a process that will transform the organisation so it can survive Adult World without it being a rather damaging experience.

· Renee Grawitzky is a freelance journalist


 * From: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=553&fArticleId=3631411**

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