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The Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) announced its long-awaited split from Cosatu last week, accelerating Cosatu’s drift into being primarily a public sector union federation.
The move also adds a large prospective union to the new labour federation being championed by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa).
Moleko Phakedi, Fawu’s deputy general secretary, this week told City Press that getting it off the ground would be harder than its main proponents suggest.
“We don’t want to be unnecessarily excited about the path we are going to walk.
“Numsa is saying, come 2017, let’s launch the federation. We say let’s work on it. If it is able to [launch], fine. We didn’t put a timeline on it because we understand the work it requires,” he said.
“Fawu is one of the unions that formed Cosatu. It was not an easy task to bring together workers of different races, genders and political convictions under one organisation,” said Phakedi.
“We are going to form a new federation, but on what basis will that federation be formed?”
Although driven by former Cosatu unions, the new federation could not “appear to be disgruntled fellows from Cosatu coming together”, said Phakedi.
“We have other unions that have joined us in the steering committee. Most of these work independently.
Some are affiliated to the National Council of Trade Unions, some to the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa), and they come from a completely different background.
“It should not be about what Cosatu has done or not done. These are some of the issues we need to iron out.”
Existing federations are unlikely to make a new rival’s life easy.
Cosatu’s opposition is virtually a given, while Fedusa has also signalled that it views the project as leading to more union fragmentation at the cost of its own affiliates.
One of the major reasons given for Numsa’s expulsion from Cosatu was that it recruited members outside of Cosatu’s “one sector, one union” rule.
Numsa has since declared itself a general union open to all sectors, which begs the question how the new federation will deal with overlapping unions.
“We don’t have a clear answer to that, but you don’t want to confuse workers with two unions from one federation fighting over one sector. That wouldn’t be ideal,” said Phakedi.
Fawu endorses Numsa’s approach to redefining sectors along value chains – a policy that led the metalworkers’ union into a confrontation with the National Union of Mineworkers on mines.
“From the farm worker, into processing, into retail and consumption. Where do we start? That discussion needs to be seriously had,” said Phakedi.
Leaving Cosatu had serious practical ramifications, said Phakedi.
“It’s huge. Firstly, it implies you lose the symbolic 30 years’ worth of that federation’s existence and your claim thereto.
“You walk a path that is unknown; you have a huge number of uncertainties from members.”
For the time being, there was little chance to influence and affect economic policy outside Cosatu, he told City Press.
“You also lose the simple things: the logos, the symbols ... Those are minor things to lose compared with losing our own selves,” he added.
“We cannot afford to lose our voice. We cannot sound the same as the ANC or the SA Communist Party.
“There is no alliance, there is one thing called the African National Congress.”
Cosatu has reacted to Fawu’s decision to leave with derision, and the federations said that the split was driven by the leadership instead of the rank and file members.
Added to that, Fawu apparently owes Cosatu R5 million in membership fees.
Fawu alleges that Cosatu will soon launch a new replacement union, much like the Liberated Metalworkers’ Union of SA (Limusa), which was created by former Numsa president Cedric Gina and replaced Numsa within the federation.
Cosatu has denied this.
“There is a group that had been funded. Seriously funded and hosted by Cosatu, in Cosatu house,” said Phakedi.
“There is more to come. They will attack leaders; they will discredit Fawu; they will rebrand and start a new organisation.”
The odds of a new union winning members back for Cosatu were slim, he said.
“Limusa will not make headway. It is not a workers’ organisation. Cedric Gina thinks he can just make a union,” said Phakedi.
Limusa got going in 2014, but by the end of 2015 had only 7 771 members, according to the department of labour’s records.
Civil servants made up 7% of Cosatu in 1994, which grew to 39% of a total 2 million members by 2012.
Since then the National Union of Mineworkers lost about 100 000 members and the 350 000-member Numsa got kicked out.
Fawu is now taking its 131 000 claimed members with it, making it almost impossible for private sector workers to still form the majority of Cosatu.
This shift in the composition of the federation mattered, said Phakedi.
“We don’t like to segment the working class, but it does matter. Public servants are not as active. I don’t think they feel the brunt of capitalism like private sector workers do.
“It changes the organisation. Cosatu is bound to be a stepping stone to government positions,” said Phakedi.
