The struggle to improve the conditions of working women in South Africa has not only been a struggle against the bosses and the apartheid government. It has also been a struggle within Cosatu to make women's issues a priority.
While some achievements have been made, there is still much to be done. And the battle to break down sexist ideas and practices within the federation as well as the struggle to map out a strategic plan to fight gender discrimination and empower women in the unions continues.
Cosatu's heritage
Cosatu inherited some important victories in the years before its launch. These include the first maternity agreement signed by Ccawusa in 1983 and CWIU's victorious struggle for equal pay for grade 4 machine operators at General Tyres. CWIU also got a manager fired for sexually harassing a woman worker at a Dunlop factory. In addition, unions won an amendment to the Labour Relations Act to the effect that Wage Determinations and Industrial Council Agreements should not discriminate on the grounds of sex.
In 1984, Fosatu published a book, called Women Workers, which outlined the key problems faced by women in the unions and the federation started gender discussion groups which debated separate women's forums in the unions.
Passing resolutions
To register its commitment to gender equality, Cosatu passed various resolutions at almost every national congress since its inception. These resolutions dealt with:
Thus it is important to make sure that women workers are involved in writing the resolutions which affect them. In addition, the obstacles standing in the way of their implementation must be removed.
Establishing women's forums and gender forums
In its search for effective ways of organising union women, Cosatu started the debate over setting up gender structures at its first national women's conference in 1988. Even though serious political differences emerged at this conference, women's groups and committees were set up by affiliates like Numsa and TGWU. Numsa published Numsa Women Organise to popularise the union's attempt at organising women. Other affiliates like TGWU organised training for women leaders. However, some affiliates did not have any functioning women's forums.
In 1990, regional and local women's committees and forums were also set up. They organised activities on general union issues such as a march against the Labour Relations Amendment Act, and on gender issues such as the National Childcare Campaign.
The Wits Women's Forum produced a book in 1992, called No Turning Back to popularise the struggle for gender equality in the unions.
It was very difficult to establish these separate structures. They were run by women unionists also active in other union structures. This meant that they were burdened with extra union responsibilities.
In addition to childcare and domestic responsibilities, union women were prevented from active participation in union work because of patriarchal domination in their homes. Incidents where husbands or boyfriends stopped women from attending meetings or even dragged women out of meetings were reported.
The women's structures were also not taken seriously by many men in the unions. Programmes were not supported, resources were limited and the structures were isolated from mainstream union activities.
Other problems included the establishment of women's structures as substructures of education committees; a lack of organisational and educational skills and the absence of specialised leadership programmes to assist women. These all contributed to the decline of women's structures.
At the 1991 Cosatu Congress, women had to fight for the continued existence of their forums. It was eventually decided that work would continue through women's and gender forums. Both men and women would participate in these and they would play an important role in educating men about the need for affirmative action for women.
Cosatu's second Women's Conference in August 1992 called for a Family Code which would promote equal domestic responsibilities for men and women. The delegates also agreed to target laws that discriminated against women, campaign for better representation of women on decision-making structures, assist with drawing up a Women's Charter and focus on maximum grassroots participation of women across the political spectrum. This conference was unanimous that separate forums for women to discuss gender issues were necessary to build women's confidence and skills.
The debate over separate women's and gender structures was raised again at a successful Cosatu Gender Winter School in 1995. Criticisms of the gender forums were raised as women still had to take responsiblity for them and men tended to dominate the forums when they attended.
Women's representation
The under-representation of women at leadership level in Cosatu is still a crucial issue and there have been furious debates over ways to deal with the limited number of women in leadership positions. More than one Congress has debated the implementation of a quota system to reserve seats for women only. The debate is unresolved.
In the meanwhile, survey results show a bleak picture. Naledi research showed that, since its inception, Cosatu has never had women in powerful decision-making positions. With the exception of Sadwu, only one regional secretary is a woman and no general secretaries or union presidents have been women.
In 1993, Cosatu's first woman national office bearer, Connie September, was elected. Excluding Sadwu, the Naledi survey shows a slight improvement in 1994, with 8% of national office bearers of Cosatu and its affiliates being women as compared to 5% in 1990.
Sexual conduct and sexual harassment in the unions
Sexual harassment and sexual conduct have been very sensitive issues in Cosatu since they first surfaced formally in 1989 during a women's national seminar on sexual harassment in Cosatu.
This laid the basis for the controversial TGWU resolution on sexual conduct in the unions which was debated and rejected at Cosatu's Congress in 1989.
The 1994 Congress was affected by allegations of serious sexual harassment on the part of some delegates at the Congress and this development laid the basis for a code of conduct on sexual harassment inside the unions.
In May 1995, Cosatu's Central Executive Committee passed a code of conduct on sexual harassment proposed by the National Women's Subcommittee. Whilst this represents a big step forward, implementing such a code presents a big challenge.
At the launch of the Sexual Harassment Education Project (SHEP ) in November 1994, Rose Makwane, Cosatu's gender co-ordinator, made it clear that women would have to push for the code to be discussed and acted upon because the issue is not on most unions' agendas. The absence of properly functioning gender structures will make the task even more difficult.
Campaigns
A number of affiliates have actively engaged in campaigns around issues affecting women workers on the shopfloor.
Of these, the struggle around parental rights and childcare have made most progress. Saccawu has spearheaded the campaign for paternal rights by focusing on the sexual division of labour in the home and the need to share domestic responsibilities between men and women. To popularise this issue, the union published a book in conjunction with Lacom, entitled Sharing the Load.
Saccawu, along with other unions, signed parental rights agreements with a number of companies. These established paid leave and job security as a right.
Since its first National Childcare Day campaign on 1 June 1990, Cosatu has consistently used the day to highlight its struggle to get employers to provide childcare facilities. On the day, men and women workers have taken their children to work. These actions have led to a number of employers negotiating childcare facilities and childcare allowances with various unions.
Some unions (particularly Numsa and CWIU) have actively taken up the struggle for equal pay for work of equal value. Progress was also made on women's health rights when unions like Numsa won the right to free pap smears for working women. Fawu has also set a precedent in fighting sex discrimination in the workplace by taking a company to court over the matter.
Policy interventions
The labour movement is now confronted with intervention in the policy-making arena through its involvement in Nedlac and other tri-partite institutions. Here the struggle to ensure that policy making is gender-sensitive remains a big challenge. At present, a limited number of union women serve in Nedlac's four chambers. This could limit the extent to which issues affecting women are taken into account.
At the outset, Cosatu was instrumental in shaping the formulation of the RDP, which makes extensive mention of the position of women in the economy and society. But intervention in these areas has raised the need for unions to strategise around the integration of gender into mainstream policies.
An important achievement at the level of policy is the adoption of the Women's Charter for Effective Equality at a convention organised by the National Women's Coalition (WNC) in February 1994. Cosatu is participating in the WNC and it has made a contribution to Article 3 of the charter which deals with the economy and the need for the economic empowerment of women.
Assessing Cosatu's achievements
Cosatu has achieved much in the first decade of its existence: