COSATU stirs up unions for Choppies
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday July 25, 2014 12:55
Choppies – which is the country’s top employer – has reportedly agreed to allow the BFTU and representatives of the new Botswana Commerce and Allied Workers Union to enter its 67 stores countrywide and recruit members into the new organisation.
The revelations, which emerged from meetings between COSATU, BFTU and Choppies’ executive management on Tuesday, follow labour unrest in Mafikeng where scores of workers were axed or suspended for allegedly stealing.
Choppies CEO, Ramachandran Ottapath and senior human resources managers from both Botswana and South Africa attended the meeting where initially, COSATU faced resistance in pushing for unionisation in Botswana.
“Some of the executives said the BFTU had no recognition agreement with Choppies and that COSATU had no grounds to be in Botswana pushing for recognition,” unionists at Tuesday’s meeting said.
“However, Choppies eventually agreed to open their doors to the new Union to recruit, which is a huge victory as the current laws require you to reach a one third threshold in order to secure the recognition agreement and then recruit.”
COSATU North West provincial secretary, Solly Phetoe said a massive recruitment campaign was planned to commence on August 1, targeting Choppies’ stores.
“We met with the BFTU and one issue we discussed outside the meeting was to provide assistance for the launch of a recruitment drive directed at Choppies and other retailers, for the new union,” he said via telephone interview.
“We will also be coming to Botswana to support this drive because we are also informed that other retailers are similarly not unionised.”
Phetoe revealed that prior to meeting Choppies’ directors, COSATU reps met with random Choppies workers in Gaborone and were concerned about the feedback.
“We could see that they were living under threat and don’t even know what a union is,” he said.
“We will be supporting the BFTU which is our ally.”
BFTU international relations secretary, Edward Tswaipe said the Federation had decided to form a union for Choppies’ and other workers in recognition of the weaknesses of existing organisation and the need among employees. He said the new union would be run and financed by the BFTU before being allowed to stand on its own.
“We decided in 2010 that we would form and fund a union for every sector which has an ineffective union,” he said late yesterday. “Existing unions may not like it, but there’s nothing else to do. “We have already registered the union and our organisers will go out to the retailers to recruit.“We will mostly target Choppies because their outlets are growing faster than the others.”
Meanwhile, Mmegi is informed that Choppies’ chairman and former president, Festus Mogae, who this week was attending a global AIDS conference in Australia, was eager to return and address the potentially embarrassing labour situation. “The directors told us that other shareholders were eagerly waiting for them to come out of our meeting and brief them, while they also said Mogae would ‘nail them’ when he returned,” South African unionists who attended Tuesday’s meeting told Mmegi.
“The CEO was also upset when he learnt that his managers in South Africa had fired workers there for merely tasting food.” COSATU had threatened to lead a boycott of all 24 Choppies stores in South Africa, while local unionists had threatened to support the move.
It is understood nearly all of the video evidence used by Choppies in South Africa contained workers sampling prepared food as part of the quality process. COSATU and Choppies have agreed to reinstate all workers and engage an independent lawyer to review footage at Choppies’ expense. “Those found to have flouted the law will undergo a proper disciplinary process,” said Phetoe.
“But I can tell you that only one can clearly be seen stealing something. The rest are preparing food.”
Ram told Mmegi that the retail supergroup was happy with the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting. “It was a good meeting and they raised a few points and they were very happy when they went back,” he said.“We will go through the proper disciplinary process after the independent lawyer reviews the video footage.”