- Under which conditions are we building SAFTU?
- The Quarterly Labour Force Survey of Q4
2016 tells us that a scandalous situation exists where 62% of workers either
don’t get regular increases or the employer sets their increases alone.
- Furthermore, only 22% of wages are set
through collective bargaining and a mere 8% of wages are set through
centralised bargaining structures.
Only 28% of all workers belong to trade unions. This means that 72% of
all workers do not belong to any union.
- We are building a trade union movement, a
broader labour movement not a narrow trade union for wages of those employed in
big workplaces and only for their safety helmets and gumboots.
- We are building a movement of big
workplaces knitted together in a common struggle with the most marginalised
sections of workers, many of whom are in precarious forms of employment.
- A new ethos to build a truly democratic, independent and militant
trade union movement in South Africa
- We are opposed to capitalist exploitation. We commit
ourselves to fight against working class exploitation. We will fight for a more
egalitarian society and will oppose any forms of inequalities be the class,
gender or race.
- We will fight against any form of discrimination. We
are acutely aware that we live in a capitalist society dominated by the private
ownership of the means of production.
- We commit to doing everything to oppose and undermine
the logic of class oppression and exploitation.
- We are building a movement that will give a voice and
represent the workers employed by human traffickers otherwise known as labour
brokers, the workers who have been outsourced and the workers whose jobs have
been unilaterally declared non-core by the bosses.
- We want to knit together the struggles of those who
receive regular salaries and benefits with the struggles of the workers in the
informal sector of the economy.
- We want to struggle hand in hand with unemployed
workers, be they still in training, or are looking for work opportunities.
- We are building a movement for the future of a South
Africa that strives to meet the needs of its people and which is committed to
an alternative to the world we currently live in.
- What it means to build worker trust once more in the trade union
movement
- Consistency in our actions to represent the interest
of workers.
- Reliability so that we become more relevant.
- Responsibility to act both in the best interests of
members and the broader working class and society;
- Intimacy with workers’ issues;
- The culture of laziness and paralysis must be uprooted and buried. SAFTU
must represent a culture of service to members and the working class.
- Our values and principles
As trade unions affiliated to SAFTU, we commit to providing
service workers and the broader working class practicing the values as set out
below:
- Worker control:
- Workers in any sector of the economy and public service, voluntarily
choose to join a trade union of his/her choice and in accordance with the
Constitution of the relevant Union contribute a weekly or monthly subscription
fee to enable the Union to service the collective needs of members to improve their
conditions of employment and benefits.
- By virtue of joining a trade union, it is the membership of the trade
union that democratically determine their workplace representatives
(Shopstewards) and office bearers in workplaces, branches, provinces and at a
national level with the following critical principles governing the elected
leadership;
- Mandating
- Report-back
- Accountability
- To ensure that workers who are members of the union and their federation
get full democratic participation in all-decision making in their workplaces
and the various union and federation structures.
- The culture of open democratic debate and tolerance shall be at the
centre of the democratic practices underpinned by democratic centralism.
- The three (3) interrelated contradictions in any capitalist society
revolves around class, racial and gender contradictions
- The Federation have non-racialism as one of its non-negotiable
principles.
- The economic basis of racism is rooted in the ownership and control of
within the white monopoly capitalist system and will never be eradicated
without getting rid of that system.
- Non-sexism must at all material times involve the struggle to address
and attack the patriarchal nature of our society wherein women are reduced to
subjects that can be oppressed and exploited using religion, culture and
tradition;
- The struggle for equality between men and women suggests that all
workers must set aside whatever prejudices they may have and strive for unity
of the exploited working class under capitalism.
- The SAFTU is a non-aligned labour movement from any political party so
that it may freely criticise and campaign against anti worker, anti-working
class and neo-liberal policies driven by any political party.
- Non-alignment must not be equated to the Federation being apolitical or
non-political. More than ever before, trade unions need to campaign on issues
that affect workers beyond their working life – education, housing, healthcare,
social security, transport, the environment, the economy and many others. All
these are political matters on which the Federation must campaign.
- Financially self-sufficient, accountable
and opposed, in word and deed, against corruption, fraud and maladministration
within its ranks
- Every cent in terms of income and expenditure must be accounted for
through the relevant worker controlled financial committees
- To sustain the operations of the unions and its federation, strategies
must always be in place to ensure financial self-sufficiency
- Anti-imperialist and International Solidarity:
- For SAFTU the principle of international worker solidarity is crucial
but it must mean building genuine solidarity with fellow workers around the
globe and not simply international affiliations thereby building
worker-to-worker and union-to-union to links.
- SAFTU accepts that Imperialism is the highest stage of Capitalism and
must be fought in all its manifestations
- Building the capacity and consciousness of workers to struggle for a
society free of oppression and economic exploitation
- A militant and fighting working class
organisation:
SAFTU shalltake forward at
all material times the interest of workers through vibrant collective
bargaining, confronting the logic of capital and defend workers against state
policies that represents a frontal attack on workers and the working class
- Our mission and our task
- Worker control and democracy
- Tolerance for different viewpoints and
ideas
- Unity
- Transparency
- Organisational and revolutionary discipline
- Honesty and integrity
- Accountability
- Accessibility
- Non-discriminatory
- Working collectively
- Commitment to the programs and
campaigns of the Federation
- Anti-corruption
- Organisational, Education and Training commitments
6.1 The federation shall
give educational support for the organisational growth of all its affiliates by
giving;
- Labour law training,
- Negotiating skills
- Offer generic courses to ensure capacity of members in
understanding the union’s constitution, the principles of the federation, the
political environment we find ourselves in
- Training of Staff and in particular Organisers to become much more
effective and capable
- Ideological grounding of members, staff and leadership
- Membership/Worker education and training
- Understanding the union
- The power of worker control
- Understanding the nature and character of class war
6.3 Shop stewards training
- Union constitution and responsibilities of a Shop steward
- Political and ideological training
6.4 Organisers/Official
training
- Legal
- Finance & Administration
- Collective bargaining
- Organising
- Education
- Leadership training:
- Chairpersons and Presidents must be trained to be better chairpersons
and to inculcate democratic political management of the unions
- Secretaries must be trained on democratic management skills of running
trade unions
- Treasurers must be trained on the most prudent management of the union
finances
- Members of the committees must know their political and fiducial
responsibilities to hold structures and leaders at all levels accountable to
the mandate
- Infrastructure to provide a better service
to members:
- Putting up call centres to receive and efficiently respond to worker
queries and complaints
- Setting up a SMS system to facilitate mass communication to Shopstewards,
officials and the leadership
- Communication
- SAFTU shall strive to continuously update the website such that the
scope of all unions serves as a clear guide for a worker making a choice to
join the union
- We shall promote the aggressive usage of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,
Instagram, Blog and Website as a recruitment tool and profiling of the work of
the Federation
- SAFTU shall help all unions to have their own websites, Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram and blog sites
- In terms of media and publications, SAFTU shall endeavour to establish,
maintain and work towards;
- A monthly then fortnightly, then weekly
newsletter based on workers’ stories
- Launching a formal worker newspaper
- Establishment of an online radio that will
develop into a workers’ radio station working with community radio stations
- Establishment of a TV station that will
work with community TV stations
We as SAFTU affiliated members and staff bind ourselves to
this SAFTU Service Charter.
- We the members, leadership and staff of the SAFTU affiliated union
commit to working tirelessly towards achieving the vision, values, commitments
and responsibilities spelled out in this SAFTU Service Charter. We will
constantly strive for these ideals to be realised with all our might; united in
action, independent in spirit, and always in the interest of members and the
working class more broadly.
- The realisation of the commitments spelt out in this SAFTU Service
Charter will require the utmost principle, commitment, discipline, and
adherence to collective responsibility by all those of us who must at all times
remain accountable to member mandates and in building member’s confidence in
SAFTU, as a fighting, militant and revolutionary federation.
- The SAFTU Service Charter will be placed in every SAFTU affiliated
union office and organised workplaces.