On April 23-24, representatives from all Numsa’s regions, the national office bearers, elected secretaries and head office sector co-ordinators, met to discuss the first draft of the secretariat report to Numsa’s 7 th National Congress in September 2004.
General secretary, Silumko Nondwangu, reminded representatives that they should use the document to “kickstart discussions in their regions.” Only once regions are ready with resolutions, will a resolutions committee be convened.
Mtutuzeli Tom, Numsa president, touched on some of the contentious issues that should be discussed in regions. “Should we go with the view that trade unions must just deal with shopfloor issues?”
Describing the electricity and water cut-offs in his province, the cable that is dug out of the ground to ensure that people don’t reconnect illegally, he made clear his stand on this burning question. “We used to wage struggles jointly [with the community], we used to ensure that when workers were on strike, we established solidarity committees in the townships. We must bring communities into the struggles of workers. The job of the trade union is not just to negotiate for safety boots, gloves and so on.”
Turning to politics, Tom denied that Cosatu wanted to convert itself into a political party. Praising Cosatu’s 2015 plan as adopted at last year’s Cosatu congress, he said the biggest challenge facing the trade union movement was not ‘changing’ the tide but ‘sustaining’ it. “We must apply our minds on how to sustain our victories.” Classifying the relations with the alliance partners during the elections period as ‘short term normality’, he warned delegates that it would “not be with us forever”.
On the shopfloor, the president warned that “our union is slowly losing its character, it is becoming executive based. Every single NEC, CC, REC and RC quorates but what about local general meetings – they don’t. We are not finding expression where it matters most.”
He cautioned delegates that “programmes and resolutions” coming from the congress would be meaningless if members remain where they are and don’t attend meetings. Shop stewards need to “do an assessment of regions and locals” and come with some proposals to congress to rectify this.
He reflected on the change within shop stewards. Whereas before, shop stewards were ‘gatekeepers’, they were the last to apply for promotion, now “shop stewards are in the forefront, ‘I have negotiated this, let me test it first’.” And once they cross to the other side those same shop stewards become HR officers and “fire at will”. “How are we going to retain shop stewards on the shopfloor?” he asked.
What do YOU say on these issues?