By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's major union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, has vowed to do everything it can to ensure that the ANC's Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) is implemented. COSATU welcomed Nelson Mandela's victory speech pledge that the implementation of the RDP would be the cornerstone of the government of national unity and that all parties in cabinet would be expected to work within that context.
COSATU described the ANC's overwhelming majority as a triumph for all workers. The ANC's program to create jobs, build houses, expand education and health services and promote peace struck a deep chord in workers, COSATU said in a statement released on May 3.
Western Cape COSATU official Tony Ruiters warned on May 3 that the unions would act if the incoming National Party government in the province refused to implement the RDP. COSATU would embark on strikes and boycotts should the NP block the RDP.
COSATU spokesperson Neil Coleman has promised that the trade unions will maintain their independence. "The history of the trade union movement in South Africa is very different from those in other parts of Africa, in Namibia or Zimbabwe for example", Coleman told listeners on the state radio network here on May 1. "Firstly, because we have a very large working population and much more advanced industrial development, but secondly, the tradition of democracy in our trade unions runs very deep.
"COSATU is based on a network of about 30,000 shop stewards who are the leadership on the factory floor where the decisions are made about demands ... how negotiations are conducted, and the tactics that are adopted ...
"A 'conveyor belt' trade union movement in South Africa in the future is very unlikely. What we are more likely to see is a close engagement between the trade union movement and the democratic movement to ensure that the objectives that are laid out in the RDP ... are implemented.
"But if there comes a time when there is a major conflict between the government of the day and the trade union movement, the trade union movement will take up an independent position."
COSATU leaders have been elected to the new parliament on the ANC candidate lists. The most prominent is former general secretary Jay Naidoo.
"At our special congress in September last year, when he made his speech on leaving COSATU, Jay was extremely emotional. He said that if it ever comes to a choice between protecting the interests of workers and supporting a government that is against the interests of workers, he would leave that government. Now, ultimately that doesn't make any difference; even if he leaves the remaining trade unionists are implicated in a government that is acting against workers.
"That is true, but we don't see those MPs, those cabinet ministers who used to be in COSATU as directly carrying out the mandate of COSATU. They will be responsible to their constituency and the public as a whole. They will be carrying out the mandate of the ANC. But they have come from a background that understands the concerns of working people and an understanding of the trade unions and organisations of civil society. That will inject an important new element into government in this country.
"But we will not rely on the ex-trade unionists in government to put forward the positions of the trade unions. We will maintain a negotiating relationship with the government as we did with the previous government. The difference, of course, is that we share a program, the RDP, with the new ANC government and with them will implement that program."
The ANC shares COSATU's commitment to trade union independence, ANC secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa said during the election campaign. He is a former general secretary of the powerful National Union of Mineworkers, one of COSATU's key affiliates.
"The ANC would never want to have a labour movement which is a lackey", Ramaphosa told a press briefing on April 21. Should differences arise between the ANC and COSATU, this would "enrich democracy and make sure we have a vibrant democratic culture ... Workers in our country guard the independence of their unions very jealously. It is something that they are not prepared to give up, and we do not expect them to."
Coleman said that increasing numbers of white workers are joining COSATU affiliates. "A couple of months ago 850 airline stewards and other staff joined our predominantly black union, the South African Railway and Harbour Workers Union. The reason for that is that the traditional white staff associations have become so denuded of democracy.
"They lack any real bargaining power because white workers have relied on apartheid job reservation and privileges in the workplace to protect them. Now those privileges are being eroded, and they are beginning to see that their real potential power lies jointly with black workers."
COSATU has begun unity discussions with South Africa's two other significant union federations, the PAC-leaning National Council of Trade Unions and the white craft union-dominated Federation of South African Labour Unions.n