UNIONS GETTING BACK TO DEMOCRATIC BASICS
Misunderstanding and confusion about the platinum sector pay issue persists. And
much of the media is to blame for repeating, without analysis, the public relations
spin of the mining companies.
This distorted version of the facts states that the mining companies agreed to meet the
R12 500 a month entry level wage demand, phased in over three years and that the
union rejected this. The implication being that the union wants the money without
delay.
However, it was worker mandated union negotiators who first proposed the phasing
in over three years. This was rejected, as was a proposal of four years to reach R12
500.
As I have mentioned before, the main sticking point is that the mining companies
want to include all the usual extras to basic wages, such as holiday pay and housing
allowances, in their R12 500 offer. So it is understandable that the union, the
Association of Construction and Mining Union (Amcu), representing the striking
miners, rejects this.
But the portrayal of the union, often personified by its high profile president, Joseph
Mathunjwa, as the power opposing the companies is also a distortion. Because
Mathunjwa, the Amcu executive and the union negotiators are beholden to
committees elected by the miners and, ultimately to the worker majority.
What occurred on the platinum belt in August 2012 was a rebellion by a majority of
miners, members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), against their union
leaders who, they felt, no longer served their interests. After mass desertions from
NUM following the massacre on August 16, Amcu stepped into the organisational
vacuum, offering to respond to the democratic mandates of the miners.
These developments raise the whole question of the role of unions and their relevance
in this global, crisis-ridden economic system. On the one hand, unions came into
being as voluntary associations of equals and, in principal, remain as such.
In mines and factories and especially in dangerous environments, workers co-operate
and rely on one another, making collective decisions because, all too often, their lives
depend on it. This is democracy in action and it is such circumstances that gave birth
to trade unions.
Workers soon learned that, as the slogan goes, an injury to one is an injury to all; that
while we are all different, our basic needs are roughly equal. This concept was
summed up by a Marikana miner who noted: “The blood of a manager is no different
to that of a rock drill operator.”
But distortions soon crept in to the often idealistic origins of various unions.
Possessing considerable collective power they are constant targets for manipulation
by governments, politicians, big business and political parties.
These pressures, combined with the actions of ambitious individuals, have seen many
unions develop into virtual clones of big business, developing a bureaucratic layer
between the workers below and the employers above. Many unions have also
contradicted the fundamental principle of equality and solidarity by establishing
investment companies that profit, like business anywhere, from the labour of
workers.
Although these companies are invariably at arm’s length from the unions themselves,
operating as separate entities, they are still linked to the unions. As such, there have
been numerous allegations of official fingers in various investment company tills.
But, as the latest row in the SA Municipal Workers’ Union has revealed, there are also
allegations of fingers in union tills. And, certainly in the case of the major unions,
those tills could provide lucrative pickings since the subscription income alone puts
them in a league well beyond that of small businesses.
There are also issues of fiduciary responsibility and accountability. These surfaced
again this week as part of another apparent attempt to discredit Cosatu general
secretary Zwelinzima Vavi over the sale and purchase of the federation’s
headquarters. However, the person directly in the firing line is Collin Matjila, now
acting CEO of Eskom and who headed Cosatu’s Kopana ke Matla investment
company when the deals were done.
But now there is a new and rebellious mood abroad in the union movement,
especially since Marikana. It seems to indicate a desire to return to basics, to the
concept of voluntary associations of equals where the leadership is not only elected,
but transparent in its dealings and wholly accountable to the membership.
In the present economic climate where employers are under increasing pressure to cut
costs, wages and conditions, collective protection — unions — for the sellers of
labour seem vital. But trade unions, because of their fundamentally democratic
nature, can also provide a bulwark against threats to our democracy.
Terry Bell
writing, editing, broadcasting
specialising in:
political/economic analysis and labour
P.O Box 373, Muizenberg 7950
South Africa
Tel: +27 +(0)21 788 9699
Skype: belnews • Twitter: @telbelsa
Blog: terrybellwrites.com