COSATU on white.png Congress of South African Trade Unions Head Office Braamfontein, Johannesburg 24 March 2016 Attention: COSATU Affiliates' General Secretaries COSATU Provincial Secretaries Dear Comrades, Re: Defending COSATU against attempts to entice our unions to the so-called new federation It has come to our attention that COSATU unions, leaders and members are being enticed to attend the so called workers summit convened as part of the process towards the formation of a divisive "new federation". We are writing to call on you, the COSATU union leaders and members not to attend the so called workers summit or be enticed to join the divisive new federation! We currently have 180 registered trade unions and 23 registered trade union federations in the country (as at 21/08/2014). A question must be asked as to why do we have so many unions yet only 27% of our workforce is unionised?" A possible answer to this question is that the majority of these unions and federations are nothing but fly-by-night enterprises. They are not there to genuinely represent the interests of their members, but those of their leaders. It is a form of business for them. Proliferation of unions is not strength; it is a weakness because it leads to a splintering of the voice of workers to the absolute delight of the bosses. The current offensive directed at workers internationally and in our country requires unity of workers and not more trade union federations. COSATU's stance remains that of achieving our vision of One Country One Federation, One Union One industry. We call on our unions and members to distance themselves from this divisive activity which is aimed at weakening and ultimately liquidating the workers' federation of Elijah Barhayi. No COSATU union, leader or member will have reasons to entertain such a divisive call when both our Special National Congress and the 12th National Congress made a clear pronouncement against any activity which will undermine our attempt to consolidate the process of achieving the unity and cohesion of the federation. Our organisation is the only weapon in the hands of workers to fight against employers to deepen and advance workers rights. As this generation of leaders and members alike we carry a heavy responsibility on our shoulders to defend our unions and our federation bestowed to us by our forbearers. We must be able to expose the enemy even if he or she wears our colours, wave our flag, shouts our slogans, sing our songs and even quote from our past leaders. We call on all our leaders and members to go to our structures, and to workplaces, work with workers, listen to their demands and defend our federation and unions through providing quality service and leading relentless struggles against employers and capital in general. Defend COSATU! Close ranks and give no quarter to the enemy! Solly Phetoe Deputy General Secretary -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
