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Pretoria - The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has responded to the Congress of SA Trade Union (Cosatu) about why it should not be expelled, union president Andrew Chirwa said on Monday.
"We have complied with Cosatu's demand. We made a submission within the seven-day deadline," he said.
He said Numsa was a critical component of Cosatu and a founding member of the labour union federation.Numsa deputy general secretary Karl Cloete said the union had submitted a 54-page document to Cosatu explaining why it should not be suspended or expelled.
"I hope they read each page," he said.
Cloete claimed that Cosatu, ANC, and SACP leaders were entering sectors where Numsa operated, ostensibly to campaign for the May 7 election.
However, they were actually influencing Numsa members to revolt against the union.
He said there was a plan to establish another metalworkers' union.
"Cosatu knows there must be a metalworkers [union] within the federation when Numsa is expelled."
At the opening of Numsa's national bargaining conference in Pretoria on Monday Chirwa accused the ANC of failing to improve the lives on the working class, claiming that they simply replaced white capital with black capital.
He also that said Cosatu's top brass are pre-occupied with sex scandals to the extent that they violated the union federation's constitution.
Cosatu and Numsa have been at loggerheads following the suspension of Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
Numsa wants Vavi's suspension to be lifted and has led eight other unionsin calling for a special Cosatu national conference.
Numsa resolved at its special national congress in December that it would not support the ANCor fund its election campaign, and it has called for Cosatu to pull out of the tripartite alliance with the ANC and the SA Communist Party.
