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Here's a look at SA labour's horrible year

IN 1992, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth popularised the term annus horribilis - Latin for “horrible year” — following scandals in the royal family and Windsor castle almost burning down.

This year, 2016, may with hindsight also be seen by the labour movement as something of an annus horribilis.

It could scarcely be otherwise at a time of ongoing economic crisis, with consequent job losses and greater global pressure on working conditions and real wages, summarised as the race to the bottom.

To this has to be added the impacts of extreme weather that is largely a result of global warming caused by a system that has widened the wage and welfare gap.

A World Bank report released this month - Unbreakable: Building the Resilience of the Poor in the Face of Natural Disasters — warns that “the combined human and economic impacts of extreme weather on poverty are far more devastating than previously understood”. As a result, some 26 million people are “forced into poverty each year”.

This is a global phenomenon and South Africa is no exception. But just as it had been for the British royals in 1992, 2016 was not all bad news for the labour movement, both here and abroad. Unions remain a force, although, overall, with declining memberships as a consequence both of job losses and worker disillusionment.

In South Africa any lingering hopes pinned on a “Lula moment” — looking to Brazil and its Workers Party (PT) government — evaporated this year as that country’s economy slumped further and PT President Dilma Rousseff was impeached. However, individual unions can, in some cases, see 2016, on balance as a fairly good year.

Numsa conference. Photo: Zukile Daniel, News24

                   The Numsa conference was held in Cape Town in December. (Zukile Daniel, News24)

On the local front, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) consolidated its hold on the platinum sector while the now independent National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) maintains that it has gone “from strength to strength”. And the small independent Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) can, with justification, see 2016 as a great year.

After a decade of struggling for recognition, with legal costs almost bankrupting the union, the CSAAWU finally made a breakthrough this month, following a 14-week strike at Robertson Winery. A wage deal backdated to August was struck, along with an agreed annual bonus, with no disciplinary action to be taken against strike leaders.

There are also signs everywhere that there is a growing realisation that the labour movement itself bears part of the blame for loss of support and power. This is summed up by the Cosatu call to go “back to basics”.

How these basics are defined and how to get to them remains to be seen.  Some within the South African labour movement hoped that the  Numsa congress held in Cape Town this month would provide answers, but all that emerged was the already expressed wish to form a new federation and encourage the establishment of a “workers’ party”.

Apart from the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) that has clearly decided to sever ties with Cosatu, there were also no other signs of any of the larger elements in the movement linking up with Numsa.  

The Cosatu affiliated Commercial and Catering union (Saccawu), also apparently accepted an invitation to attend the Numsa gathering, but was not in obvious attendance.

But given the political machinations within the governing ANC-led alliance, the fact that finance minister Pravin Gordhan and economic development minister Ebrahim Patel were guest speakers at the Numsa congress was significant.  Both also agreed that there exists a global economic crisis and that something urgent needs to be done.

On that point, at least, the ministers and Numsa, together with the wider labour movement, are on the same page.  But when it comes to seeking a way forward, there seem no firm answers while the same great differences exist:  the ministers calling for a social compact, to bring together government, business and labour while Numsa wants noting to do with business or the present government and its alliance partners.

At least Patel did mention at some length the threat to the economic and social order of the so-called fourth, technological, revolution.  But this merely highlighted the extent of the gloom.

On all sides it seems agreed that the immediate past and the looming future  seem mutually grim for all but a tiny  minority of the super rich.

Answers are demanded, but none seem to be forthcoming.  So whether the new year, with a promised new labour federation and a workers’ party, will start a change for the better is moot.

However, as the cliché notes:  hope springs enternal.....the alternative is that the dawn of 2017 could herald yet another — and perhaps worse — annus horribilis.

* Add your voice or just drop Terry a labour question. Follow Terry on twitter @telbelsa.



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