Sharing union ideasAyanda Billie and Kaya Yoko
Numsa News spoke to two women trade unionists from Sweden who are finding common purpose with South African workers. Birgitta Laner and Birgit Birgersson Brorsson share their thoughts.
“We came here to share and build our solidarity, and to come up with ways and means of building our unions at different levels. We want to see how we can work together to grow, how we use member’s fees and how we engage our members in the union’s issues”, says Laner.These two women are in the forefront of the struggle of workers. Laner is an organisating secretary of the Sweden Industrial and Metal Workers union, while Birgersson Brorsson is the international secretary of the same union.They spoke of how during the ’80s, unions in Sweden started to lose members. The school leavers – the youth that were getting jobs did not see the need to join the unions. They took everything for granted; they had salaries every month, they were able to take vacations. “They thought nothing would ever change. Now things are bad. In the whole process we lost a number of members, we have learnt a lesson and have decided to make something and act. We invested money in the programme of unionising every worker. We went back to basics. We started the training in January last year; there had been an improvement in the membership until this international crisis. In June 25% of our membership will be out of jobs”, says Laner with a sad tone.
Trade unions and politicsTheir trade union is an independent union. It has no an alliance with any political party. Their values are justice and solidarity. The laws of the former government of the Democratic Socialist Party were in favour of workers’ struggles. Birgersson Brorsson emphasizes, “we don’t want politicians to be part of our income policy or regulation of our jobs. These are between the union and employer. We don’t let our members get lost in the mist of politics. We train and educate them about the differences between the parties so that they can make an informed decision on who to vote for. But we don’t tell them for whom they must vote!”Faced with a choice of a conservative government or one led by the Democratic Socialist Party, both would choose the Democratic Socialist Party. “They supported the welfare system where the unemployed were benefiting. The conservative government changed all that to source funds from us. As we have 52 branches across the country, what we contribute into the UIF will be dictated by the number of unemployed in each branch.”
Gender balanceA few years ago more than 50% of the leadership of the union was dominated by men. But now all that has changed – 40% of women are in the national leadership of Swedish unions.
Sound adviceWith a smile Birgersson Brorsson says, “never be too satisfied, never rest from organising and educating the workers; never forget to feel and hear the footsteps of your members, never be too comfortable. Try to change for the better and respect their mandate.”
Naledi strengthens abasebenzi Ayanda Billie
Naledi is Cosatu’s research institute. Ayanda Billie spoke to Rob Rees about the Naledi project, “strengthening workers’ rights and implementing social standards”.The three year project is in its last year (2009). The aim of the project is to * Research German multinational corporations (MNCs) in South Africa* Assess their impact: economically and socially as well as their compliance with international standards* Involve and train Numsa and Ceppwawu shop stewards and organisers including through exchange visits* Develop ways to strengthen bargaining and international solidarity.The project is concentrating on four sectors – metal, machinery, electronics and manufacturing companies and there are three core companies per sector.”We are involving German companies because we have 500 German MNCs in South Africa,” says Rees. “Together they employ about 70 000 people. They have a heavy presence in the auto sector. On average German firms have been in South Africa for over 20 years.”Naledi is driving the project. Shop stewards and workers are helping to do the research. Naledi will then write a book. Labour education institute, Ditsela will then teach the book, “all this with involvement of shop stewards and workers”, says Rees.”Since we are working with German companies, we also have exchange programmes in the project. Our criteria are that workers in the companies going on the exchange visits to Germany must be active in the project (their company report must be complete). And there should be proper gender balance and those workers should be capable of reporting back.”Rees stressed that common problems are “getting time off for people to attend meetings; sometimes comrades change flights and change delegates. But nevertheless all the participants are keen and positive”.Watch this space!
For more info about the Programme call:Rob Rees @ 011 403 2122