Fawu and Cosatu set for tug of war over supporters

Published Aug 28, 2016

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Johannesburg - Cosatu and one of its founding unions, the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), will soon be entangled in a war over members on shop-floors in several sectors across the country.

Fawu members resolved to disaffiliate from the trade union federation at a congress this week, setting Cosatu off on a mission to create a “warm home” for the union’s members who want to remain in its fold.

The offer made by Cosatu after its central executive committee (CEC) meeting this week has angered Fawu leaders. They claim the federation is launching a Fawu spin-off, which was set in motion months ago.

“We view it as a threat, and the congress was very clear that when we leave Cosatu it will not be an easy thing, there will be an equivalent of Limusa called LiFawu or something like that.

“So when they refer to a warm home for workers, it simply means that.

“We have a responsibility to inform our members about this congress decision and defend Fawu from being attacked by this new home that Cosatu may set up,” said Fawu general secretary, Katishi Masemola.

But Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali has denied a new affiliate is being formed.

“We did not discuss forming another union. “The broad principle in the CEC was that Fawu members must find a warm home in Cosatu.

“It would not be necessary to form another union because Fawu members would be able to join other Cosatu unions.”

Fawu’s exit from Cosatu is the climax of a two-year struggle between the two, with the union resorting to a boycott of constitutional meetings in protest against the National Union of Metalworkers of SA’s (Numsa) expulsion.

The loss of Fawu will hurt Cosatu which is still reeling from the vacuum left behind by Numsa. Its replacement, Limusa, is struggling to penetrate the steel sector. Fawu members said the trade union federation had abandoned their issues as workers, and lost its might as a militant and campaign-driven organisation.

But Cosatu dismissed this claim. It says it gave the union R800 000 in legal fees to deal with the SAB merger as an example of its support. This was despite Fawu owing the federation millions of rand in affiliation fees alone.

Cosatu is upping its recruitment drive and will go to sectors where Fawu is organising vulnerable workers. The federation said it needed to ensure space was created for workers as the union had “polarising leadership” who had pushed for the disaffiliation for “narrow political reasons”.

“These Fawu leaders will go down in history as the ones who split the union,” Ntshalintshali said.

Numsa has entered the fray, saying Cosatu leaders had no one else to blame for the move which will likely harm some of the worst exploited workers in the country.

General secretary Irvin Jim applauded Fawu, saying they will now focus on building a new federation for workers who want independence from political affiliation.

“The current leadership of Cosatu is directly responsible for that because for them it was about defence of a political party which is basically dying - the ANC.”

While public spats between Numsa and Cosatu seemed to have died down recently, they could clash again after Cosatu announced it would recoup monies owed to it by Numsa and Fawu.

Jim said Cosatu should “dream on”.

He added: “It is criminal for Cosatu to try to look for any money. We will obviously oppose that. They have no grounds to demand a cent from us.”

Masemola said Fawu would consult its lawyers on whether it should pay the R5 million subscription fees’ bill.

Cosatu’s financial standing is bound to worsen, with mass retrenchments in several industries and as the majority of workers reject trade unions. The federation had already pleaded its case of financial strain to affiliates at its last congress. The Cosatu constitution warns of this and the other effects of disaffiliation, which included the possibility of mass resignation by union members.

At a time when workers face uncertainly as the economy struggles to recover from a plunge brought on by global pressures and the massive decline in key industries such as mining, the conflict between Cosatu and its former unions can only harm workers.

All parties involved in the myriad disputes which seem to have accumulated in the labour movement since 2012 agreed that worker unity was the biggest tool in their hands.

Labour Bureau

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