Human resource boss fault union participation in politics
Onalenna Kelebeile | Thursday December 4, 2014 11:34
Speaking during the official opening of Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) convention this week, he said the decision by BOFEPUSU to back Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) in the last elections does not look tenable from a strategic point of view.
He said it is advisable for Botswana trade unions to desist from partisan politics because they are still weak and divided.
Moreover, unionisation density is low in the country, unemployment rate is high and there is no political consensus among union members. He said other political parties also have members in unions while political education is low. He encouraged Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) and BOFEPUSU to improve their relationship and work together to strengthen their bargaining power.
Molutsi said unity is important for the unions because it will help them work better with international organisations. He said the core mandate of the union is to fight for workers rights and not to align with political parties.
Molutsi who was addressing the convention on political participation said the nation wants to see the two federations bargaining together.
He lamented that there are many international opportunities the country loses because BFTU and BOFEPUSU are not united. “I urge the two federations to spend the next five years working on improving their relations,” he appealed.
Molutsi warned trade unions that if they choose to be partisan they run the risk of weakening themselves, limiting their impact and losing social partners. “The strategy is not pointing to the direction of success. Look at it closely and rethink your position. You may not agree but it is a fact,” he said.
He explained that union members must first consider the fact that they are government employees and that there are contested spaces they must occupy in government through unions so that laws, policies and negotiations can favour them. He added that if the unions engage in partisan politics, government will occupy the whole space and lobby against them. “Shifting positions of social partners will also be experienced and employers will have more influence against you.
There is no problem if an individual chooses his own party but there is a problem when a trade union chooses to support one party over the other,” he stated. He advised unions to work to strengthen their bargaining power through concerted negotiations, intensified membership recruitment, improvement of trade union education to boost productivity and justify salary increases. He stated that the history of unions in Botswana is replete with fights and divisions based on partisan politics.
“Partisan politics are likely to derail the trade unions from their core mandate. I know some unions have been aligned to political parties but that does not matter as long as my message is relevant to the labour movement,” he added.
He urged trade unions to consider that in engaging in partisan politics, they may reverse what has been achieved since 2000 such as implementation of conventions, the enactment of the Public Service Act and an improvement in retrenchment packages.
Giving a solidarity message BOFEPUSU official, Tobokani Rari said during the convention that the federation’s participation in partisan politics has been in the public domain and the issue is whether it came through a congress resolution or not.
“We realised upon being elected into office that our predecessors had trotted between political parties and held the view that opposition parties must unite and workers would rally behind them and we followed in their steps,” he explained.
He said the matter got complicated and in the process, the federation leadership differed in public. “I agree that that was untidy. The leadership met and agreed that they did not do the labour movement any justice. They resolved to bury the hatchet and speak with one voice going forward,” he said.