There can be no argument that the declining relevance, influence, and authority of the trade union movement in this country is greatly linked to the global economic turmoil of various sorts over the past 15 years, and more recently the impact of the Covid pandemic. Particularly in this country, and in some others, like Poland in the 1980s, the trade union movement has been instrumental in bringing about radical political and social change.
What characterised this power was a cohesiveness and common purpose for greater good, something that has been leeching away in the movement in this country, where self-interest, vanity, and the greed for power (as members of the governing Tripartite Alliance) took precedence.
Writing in the Sunday Times this week, Phindile Kunene produces a scathing indictment of the current status of unions and union leadership, calling them ‘….a spent force-too removed from ordinary people and too wedded to narrow interests to make any real contribution to social change’. This really struck a chord with me, as I recalled an interview with Zwelinzami Vavi where he spoke about the ‘struggles of the working class’. I had to stifle a guffaw, remembering the scandals involving union credit cards, 5 star hotels and business class travel. Indeed, even today, top union officials are regarded as ‘Gucci Socialists’ for their penchant for designer clothes and accessories.
And then in the 1990s we saw the advent of Union ‘Investment Arms’, with top officials blatantly ‘double dipping’ by becoming directors and proxy shareholders as the largesse from BEE and worker empowerment schemes were doled out by corporates and multinationals. Some were even appointed to the Boards of the companies that employed their members. The result was that some union officials such as Johnny Copelyn and Marcel Golding became multi-millionaires in their personal capacities, while ostensibly managing union members’ interests.
Of course, it was inevitable that as union movements became more involved in capitalist ventures through their investment arms, conflicts of interest and concentration on self interest would become the norm. In the public sector, unions representing municipal workers such as the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) have cosied up to corrupt elements raiding municipal coffers to get their piece of the pie, as occurred in Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo, where as Kunene writes, they sided with the municipality in hunting down corruption whistleblowers. Then there is the Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union that essentially turned a blind eye to the rampant malfeasance at Tembisa Hospital, to the point of supporting the suspended CEO.
That the once noble and selfless goals of the trade union movement in this country have been subsumed and consumed by greed, self interest and power mongering is plain to see. Sadly, at the time that workers most need the counsel, protection and collective wisdom of a union collective, there is little meaningful to be found.
Vijay Naidoo is the CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum. He writes in his personal capacity. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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