BOPEU calls for unity

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday November 25, 2014 12:54

Giving a solidarity message on Saturday at Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) special delegates congress at Ave Maria Pastoral Centre, Marenga said unity and solidarity are their greatest strengths.

“It is in unity and solidarity that workers have the audacity to face powerful employers, such as DPSM or Botswana Savings Bank or Debswana or Shoprite-Checkers; or powerful individuals within those organisations, such as managers of Choppies or Central Bank Governor. It is unity that gives us respect in society; that make employers treat us with care; that make Governments think twice before introducing a bad law,” Marenga said.

He said when they are united, they are able to bargain for wages and protect workers from the effects of privatisation, restructuring and retrenchments, which are local ramifications of a neo-liberal, unjust and unfair globalisation.

“It therefore goes without saying that while unity gives us strength, divisions makes us weak, entrenches vulnerability and labour market flexibility and opens a vacuum for reversal of social gains. It is therefore a grave error to think that any trade union or federation can exist in isolation; to think that when a single worker loses a case at the Industrial court it does not affect other workers; that what happens to workers in the private sector can be separated from what happens to workers in the public sector,” Marenga said.

He argued that it would be foolishness to continue to build trade unions as silos and small empires of union leaders, in parallel or multiple federations, some strong and effective, while some are weak.

He added that no employer or government could promote divisions for a good cause.

“Whenever we are divided employers find the space to entrench their interests and push the frontier of our advances backwards. Comrades the saying that Workers united cannot be defeated” also means that workers divided will always be defeated.” He said they should guard against union leader, co-worker, lawyer or a politician who preaches and promotes divisions in their midst.

He said the parallel existence of Botswana Federation Of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) and BFTU is dividing workers and should not be encouraged by anyone with workers’ genuine interest at heart. At the end of the day, it is ordinary workers who pay the price for the disunity by making the labour market more flexible and workers vulnerable, he said.

Marenga said BOPEU pledges to encourage and participate in any endeavours that promote unity of the trade movement.

“We have been mandated to work with BFTU and to possibly affiliate if necessary. The rumour doing the rounds that BOPEU is leading the formation of a third federation because of the fall-out at UNIGEM or because we have been bought should be ignored: it is simply malicious propaganda peddled by petty, desperate journalists and union leaders who thrive by promoting disunity and confusion within the ranks of the trade unions. UNIGEM is not a labour federation but a business investment. Let us remain focused and march forward to unity of the labour movement,” he said.