Cosatu’s legitimacy questioned as workers prioritise job security

It’s not surprising that this week’s Cosatu protests were poorly attended as union membership is declining worldwide and workers are also reluctant to support national strike actions that are unrelated to shopfloor issues, say experts.

The ANC-aligned federation took to the streets on Thursday to flex its muscles against the rising cost of living, including hikes in electricity tariffs, as well as fuel price rises, and to oppose load shedding, corruption, crime and unemployment.

But attendance was very poor countrywide. Despite this, the federation expressed satisfaction with the turnout.

Labour consultant Tony Healy said one of several reasons that this week’s national day action by Cosatu-affiliated unions was poorly supported by workers was that that many workers believed union federations were dragging them into supporting a political agenda rather than their bread-and-butter issues as workers.

Most importantly, the workers did not want to lose a day’s pay in light of the ensuing economic conditions.

“Another factor that is important is that union members are getting increasingly frustrated at the unions and federations’ focus on macro issues rather than giving greater focus to shopfloor issues,” said Healy.

“This would be the reason why the turnout has been so poor.

“Unions and federations have been losing focus on the main reasons why workers join – to promote job security and for collective bargaining to enhance their conditions of employment.

“They don’t join trade unions to support them in their socio-political aims. That’s of secondary interest to them. Their primary interest is shopfloor issues.

“The average worker is not willing to join a march against cost of living and lose a day’s pay,” Healy said.

In his opinion, the protests had no influence whatsoever on the government and the private sector, which was another reason that they were not supported by the majority of workers.

Elaborating on the political agenda pursued by federations, the consultant said another factor was that to a very large degree, the street marches were also directed to trying to promote Cosatu’s legitimacy and relevance more than anything else because they give the union body space and camera time.

“But I don’t think anybody thinks these strolls through central business districts every few months influence decision-making at all on any of the issues that they are protesting against.

“To the workers, there is some concern about sacrificing a day’s pay to attend these protests,” he said.

Veteran labour consultant Andrew Levy said trade unionism was falling apart worldwide including in South Africa.

Membership of trade unions has dropped and Cosatu’s numbers had dropped significantly – a view shared by Healy.

Levy attributed the loss of union membership mainly to widespread retrenchments, workers being reluctant to join unions which obliged them to participate in strikes and thus lose money and the fact that many workers did not see any value in the subscriptions they paid as union members.

“Many members who should be in support of the actions see that their employers are experiencing difficulties and they do whatever they can to ensure their employees don’t lose jobs.

“In terms of union membership, if you look at the 21st century all over the world, unions are not the future.

“They are losing membership, they are losing relevance,” he said. Levy noted that the biggest union membership increase currently internationally was in the public sector.

This was because members in governments were not only members but also voters and their votes count.

“There is an election coming next year and Cosatu wants to show that it is still commanding a great deal of support among the workers and the government should be nice to them.

“But Cosatu has over-estimated the degree of support they still have,” Levy said.

He had not expected the Cosatu action to be well supported considering that the workers’ only concerns nowadays were about wages, job security and workplace conditions rather than protesting about unemployment, corruption and other political issues.

Healy said Cosatu had lost strength.

“The federation has more than halved in size because of the Saftu [SA Federation of Trade Unions] split and because of the decline in union membership.”