New labour federation plans launch in March
LEADERS of a new workers’ federation as an alternative to the Congress for South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) have targeted the last weekend of March next year for its official launch.
Four names – the South African Council of Trade Unions (Sactu), Progressive Workers’ Federation of SA (Prowfesa), Democratic and Independent Trade Unions of SA (Ditusa) and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) – have been shortlisted as possible names for the new federation.
Former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and other founding leaders of the new federation like National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim, his Food Allied Workers Union (Fawu) counterpart Katishi Masemola and the South African Liberated Public Sector Workers’ Union (Salipswu) leader Thobile Ntola have been hard at work trying to ensure the federation becomes a reality.
Already 38 unions have pledged their allegiance to the new federation – but this is still too low compared with the 186 registered trade unions in the country, Vavi told the Saturday Dispatch.
When Numsa and other unions announced they would embark on a process of establishing a “workercontrolled” federation and not a “labour desk”, their detractors in Cosatu labelled it as a “formation of disgruntled people”.
In a statement this week, Vavi said the steering committee tasked with establishing the federation had resolved to launch its website on Thursday.
Its Facebook and Twitter accounts meant to drum up support are already operational, he said.
The federation had initially been planned to be launched between March 17 and 19 next year – but because of the non-availability of a venue, it was pushed to March 25 to 27.
“When we started this journey to build a new independent, democratic and