vavi: ‘we will do it differently’ - air cleaner in car

Zwelinzima Vavi, former secretary general of the labor federation, is the convener of the steering committee for the workers summit this weekend.
"Why do we need a new federation?
What did a Federation achieve?
Vavi: the union movement split at an alarming rate, but it did not translate into more workers belonging to the Union.
More and more workers see unions as unattractive.
Only 26% of workers belong to trade unions, and this percentage is declining.
Do you know what that says?
The union's concerns about the bread and butter issues of its members were scattered.
Too many political pranks.
More importantly, most workers join the Union in order to be protected by work.
None of the unions or federations can claim that it has been successful in stopping the blood wash from unemployment.
So what we need is to expand the solidarity of workers.
But this solidarity must now cross the usual political and ideological divide.
It must cross the usual race or skill level difference.
It must combine blue collar with white collar.
White-collar workers, white workers and black African workers.
CP: only one existing labor federation Nactu is involved.
Is to disband them and create a new superfederation?
Vavi: that's what we discussed at the workers summit on Saturday.
What kind of unity will we build?
50 unions, including all the affiliates of Nactu, will come together and ask how we will actually do this.
There is a view that in order to achieve unity, we must build a new federation of independence, democracy, fighting, activism, solidarity.
Some say maybe we should look at the Federation.
Fedusa holds this view.
Others think it will lead to paralysis. . .
Too complicated.
If there are still competing territories throughout the show, workers can never really speak in one voice.
CP: What do you think should happen?
My point is that there should be a federation, a country.
There should be a new way to organize workers in all industries so that we can express the principles of one of our unions, one industry, to recognize the changes in the economic environment.
CP: this is a key principle of Cosatu, resulting in a lot of conflicts. Vavi: Exactly.
The international experience is that trade unions merge in order to acknowledge that capital has not remained static.
Things have changed.
Vertical organizations seem to be accepted by workers around the world.
Any strict adherence to one-union-one-
Industry will only weaken workers.
I think one of the biggest areas we will be discussing as we move towards the formation of the new union is how do we manage this issue?
How does this become a question of more unity than more division and conflict?
CP: Several people in that room will come from the union trying to organize the same workers.
Are you willing to dissolve or merge the Union?
To what extent is the leadership of the Union interested in maintaining the integrity of the Union?
Vavi: there is nothing to debate.
These questions are real.
There is an important history here, there are important colors and signs, all of which have great emotional attachment.
All of this is important, with political and organizational considerations.
We must go very, very carefully.
The purpose here must in no way be to vigorously push for union consolidation without letting them see the need to embrace that solidarity in a practical sense so that members, not leaders, can be beneficiaries.
CP: So the unions have to recognize that things have changed in their organization?
Vavi: this will be a discussion that requires input from experts, people who can conduct research to examine the impact of capital restructuring on workers' lives.
Can you give an example that SA still has a mining industry that is not related to manufacturing today?
In many areas that no longer make sense.
Can you say that agriculture can be independent without agricultural products processing today?
CP: What about domestic workers?
They have never been able to organize.
Vavi: the problem of domestic workers is the most difficult problem in trade unions around the world.
It is no longer confined to domestic workers.
Many small-scale garment and textile jobs are at homebased.
It's a nightmare to organize because it's easy to reach the workers and you can find them in all the suburbs.
The problem is to serve them and protect them from harm in isolated workplaces.
That's why it's a nightmare.
This will be a huge challenge.
Let's face it. The South African union movement no longer sees itself as a broader labor organization. CP: How so?
Vavi: ILO seeks not only to speak on behalf of its members.
It carries out publicity activities in the formal and informal sectors to mobilize workers.
It must unite workers in the workplace.
Unemployed workers.
CP: isn't the interests of some workers the opposite?
Vavi: very good.
From the history of apartheid in South Africa and our colonial history, there is no doubt that our history has benefited white workers.
Latest employment rights (report)
Just strengthened this.
We have not made real progress. It is scary.
In essence, there are those who benefit, there will be those ambitious workers.
This often leads to conflict, which is why white workers tend to gather under white unions and why black workers tend to build a union that supports their wishes. They (white workers)
Higher wages, better technology, they enjoy better protection and better job security.
This makes unity very difficult.
But maintaining the status quo on the basis of these divisions will be treason against black and white workers.
Unity must be based on fairness.
Fairness means that there must be remedies, and there can be no negotiations on that.
CP: But you need to state a reason to both sides, and the reason you state to one side is not the same as the one you state to the other. . .
Vavi: At the macro level, the unity between dynamic and black and white is the same.
The question that everyone has to answer honestly is whether this is in the best interest of any South Africa in the long run, let black workers in dirty and black communities like Alexandra face this level of poverty and despair.
Is it consistent with our stability to keep Sandton basically white and to be rich only causes more anger?
Keeping the status quo is a risk for everyone.
I think that if the worker belongs to a single union, you are more capable of building that level of awareness.
CP: When things in Cosatu crash, you start to use the word "social distance" to describe the root cause of the problem.
Is there a way to avoid the development of nobility when you have large unions?
Vavi: one of the reasons I don't want to rush into a new alliance is that I don't want to see the replication of these errors.
The issue of social distance between leaders and their members is basically given to us by Marikana.
It happens at every level.
Phone, laptop and air conditioning for full time clerk.
Qualified office
The union negotiated to get them a better salary because they would not get a promotion.
This is an area full of competition, tension and pressure.
Then, as a group, there is a social distance between shopkeepers --
And their members.
Nowadays, there is a greater possibility for shopkeepers to be targeted by the management who wish to weaken the Union.
So it's easy for them to be part of HR positions and they're more likely to drive luxury cars next year.
This creates tension in the workplace as workers now say the union is trying to give opportunities. . .
There are various differences between the local shopkeepers and regional leaders.
Wages are one of the problems.
When you have all the general secretary and provincial secretaries on medical aid programs and housing subsidies, they are moving from town to former white --only suburbs.
They don't know the experience of sending your child to a dysfunctional school or hospital.
You create a different class in the work class.
It was a different experience.
This is another society.
We must have an open discussion on this.
CP: What can you do?
Artificial intelligence, this is not an easy thing.
By 1994, the union had a more flat wage structure in the past.
Very flat.
I remember that this ratio must not exceed 1 to 6.
GS shall not earn more than six times the minimum income, and in most cases the minimum income is a security guard at the cleaner or at the door.
This is the idea.
When the union lost so many skilled employees to the government, it was blown out.
They need people. we almost lost everything.
Cosatu in particular was forced to return to the drawing.
All of a sudden, everyone saw their salary increase by 100% to try to keep people in the Union.
But in order for people to stay inside the Union, you open the gap between them and the reality that their constituency has not increased by 100%.
There was no such debate before 1994.
The car we drive now. .
There was no car to drive at first.
It never had a car and moved to 1.
Toyota Corolla or small golf.
Now it goes into the 3 Series 4 series and a4s as well as the Q one and that one.
I mean, the situation has improved between union members.
There is a layer above the worker, some form of aristrocrat layer.
CP: So where did you intervene?
You can't cut wages. . .
Vavi: they will leave and professionals within the Union will go into the government and the private sector.
It will be difficult, I don't know.
This is, however, an absolutely necessary discussion.
CP: how do you create an alliance that might not be welcomed by the largest existing alliance without it becoming a battle?
What happened between Amcu and NUM was very special, however. . .
Vavi: You see, a worker died in the past in clashes between Fawu and Saccawu in eastern London.
This rarely happens.
Before NUM and Amcu, there were five Madoda and the throat alliance. . .
None of them were legal unions, but they expressed frustration.
That's what they have in common.
For example, up to five horses and a mouthpiece require workers to pay a retirement fund now.
So, you can say that these workers are being misled, but there are a few things that have led to the prevalence of this situation at a specific time.
It would be very sad if such competition would lead to war in the workplace and a fight between workers.
We should avoid this situation.
Better education about what the real enemy is must move on. . .
Only 26% of the workers belong to the Union, which is the place to pay attention, and 74% of the workers are unorganized.
Because it is harder for them to form a union.
CP: by definition, the union represents workers who have jobs.
Vavi: then you are talking on behalf of something that is falling. . .
What SA needs is a broader labor movement that will seek to unify unemployed people with employment, the informal sector with the outsourcing sector, outsourcing with permanent personnel, etc.
If you can't do that, then you will slowly become a Labor leader.
All of a sudden, DA on the right makes sense.
CP: What can such an organization do for the unemployed?
Vavi: there are too many things.
For example, a new federation must, as far as its general campaign is concerned, launch a campaign to undermine the colonial economy and a campaign to undermine the monopoly that controls the economy.
Of course, it has to campaign for industrialism, decent work, social pay, better transportation, better schools, better education, better training.
It must work to establish a comprehensive social security system.
Most importantly, at the same time, the union movement must be able to deal with placement and fight for learners in each workplace.
It has to set up its own center for unemployed workers, organize the workers themselves, and coordinate the submission of resumes.
It must have a permanent desk that coordinates the activities of these unemployed persons.
CP: how about trying to do this in the past?
Vavi: because of the distance of society, your attention becomes the next negotiation. Only.
The fact that you can't negotiate wages for someone is a big surprise.
I said at the Numsa bargaining conference that if Numsa submits anything to this round of negotiations that doesn't talk to the workers who sell bananas, apples and hair cuts outside, then they have to know, this is not talking to workers in the metal industry as a whole.
That's how you build unity.
Deal with and unite these issues through practical solidarity actions.
Workers in the informal sector must know that if a union strike fails, they will also fail.
We must break the culture we have developed.
In most unions today, workers are only active during the wage negotiation season.
This led the workers to believe that the union was the only benefit.
The union did not even succeed in this regard.
Income inequality is growing in this country.
The problem of percentage of demand has caused inequality to persist for a long time.
In essence, the percentage means something different. . . .
That's why the question of asking rands and cents is so popular among workers.
The demand for r12 AED 500 is one of the most common needs for workers today, as it involves flat hierarchies.
CP: SA is characterized by too long strikes.
The strike was the price of the workers.
It's their main tool, but is it working well?
Vavi: if the union organizes only a small number of workers, there will never be a strong strike.
The factor of 26% is a big problem.
This is your first question.
The second problem is when your unemployment rate is good for the boss.
Marx and Engels talked about the issue of labor reserve.
It's so easy to change the striker.
It's too easy.
Then there is the third technical problem.
You will not strike because you are not sure if you will win.
A good strike should be three to seven days.
But once it's the third or fourth week you're in a crisis because of the level of poverty and the fact that the country has no money to strike, employers know that.
There is no interest in establishing a strike fund in this country. CP: why?
The union did control a lot of money.
I don't know.
Cosatu has resolutions and resolutions to set up a strike fund, but none.
Even now, I have been told that some of Cosatu's unions are worth billions of dollars, but why don't they put 1 billion into the strike fund?
CP: at least in some universities, what do you think about how the student outsourcing campaign can achieve goals that the union has been unable to achieve for decades? Vavi: True.
Let me tell you what is the big difference between Feesmustfall and traditional union requests in several rounds of negotiations.
The fall of Feesmust is instantaneous, it is impulsive, it is based on today's, it does not apply to the bargaining partand-so.
Then, when there is a dispute, it will not pass the normal notice and CCMA, when there is a 48-hour notice of strike. . .
No, feesmust and outsource must are workers who gather with students in the afternoon, they march tomorrow, they disrupt the whole life of the university, they force an agreement.
They were very successful.
There is also an example, a political one.
With respect to Nkandla, with respect to Waterkloof, with respect to the Constitutional Court, the level of anger at Jacob Zuma is a long list, but let me tell you about the tragedy.
Our tradition is to have a consultative meeting and then, two weeks later, we plan to have a parade.
By that time, the anger had dissipated, and no one had come to the parade, and it was thought that "ag, he is unbeatable, he is immune", and the situation continues.
When the Icelandic people heard that the Prime Minister's wife had an overseas account, they took the streets that day.
CP: How long do you have Federation to establish and run?
Well, let's see what they said on Saturday.
The steering committee said that for the four months ended October.
Identity is a huge pressure for an independent union family.