Is elephant in the room sitting on labour broking fence?
October 5, 2009
By Donwald Pressly
Former Cosatu president Willie Madisha, now a Cope MP, was the elephant in the room during the first joint press conference last week by Cope and the DA at Parliament.
Former trade unionist, ex-ANC MP and now Cope MP Phillip Dexter apologised for Madisha's absence right at the start of the conference held in the Helen Suzman room in the Marks Building, where the opposition parties are housed at Parliament.
Dexter explained that Madisha, Cope's labour spokesman, was "in his constituency" and could not come down to be in Cape Town to explain why his party was opposed to the proposed ban on labour broking mooted by the ruling alliance.
It was indeed constituency week last week and most MPs were away, but given that Madisha played a key role in drawing up the joint Reforming Labour Broking document, one would have thought he could have made an appearance.
Knowing how much planning the DA puts into media relations, one would assume that Madisha - and Dexter - had long warning of the conference.
Madisha was ousted from his post as Cosatu president after it became clear that he had backed the wrong horse, former president Thabo Mbeki.
His former trade union federation has been outspoken in its opposition to the practice of labour broking. Its new president declared it "uncivilised" and exploitative at the recent Cosatu congress.
Dexter was tackled on the absence of Madisha. Was it because Madisha was too embarrassed to be seen under a DA banner - the conference room was adorned with DA and Cope banners - and did he support his party's position?
The rather disingenuous answer was: Perhaps it was because the journalist was late for the press conference that he missed the explanation? Dexter did appear to shuffle a trifle uncomfortably at this point.
Flanked by new DA MPs Ian Ollis and Andrew Louw, the official opposition's labour spokesmen, Dexter noted that even Ollis was wearing a red tie, apparently an indication of leaning to the political left.
Dexter, a former chairman of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union's investment wing, said that Madisha had been "part and parcel" of the discussions with the DA to oppose the scrapping of labour broking.
This is apparently despite finding it difficult to oppose ANC plans to have labour broking scrapped in the National Assembly's labour committee.
Yet at the 11th congress of Cosatu in 2003, Madisha complained about mass unemployment and casualisation.
"If there are millions of desperate people outside wanting your jobs, no matter how skilled your negotiators are, no matter how militant and united your members, the employer has the upper hand. We have seen this process take place daily in the shift to informal and casual labour.
"In mining in particular, we have seen a growing reliance on labour brokers to divide workers and take some workers outside of collective agreements."
There was no trumpeting sound from the elephant in the conference room.
|
|
