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NUMSA foes put its expulsion on hold Natasha Marrian, Business Day, Johannesburg, 24 October 2014 THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) on Thursday pulled back at the last minute from expelling its largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (NUMSA). In a nail-biting third day of COSATU's special central executive committee meeting, NUMSA's opponents within COSATU somersaulted on their motion to expel the union. COSATU also postponed making a call on its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, accused of various improprieties. NUMSA's axing would have split the 2.2-million member federation. It would also have left Mr Vavi isolated among COSATU's top brass - NUMSA is his largest backer. It is understood that late on Wednesday unions tabled a motion to expel NUMSA due to its alleged poaching of workers from other unions. NUMSA's opponents include the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, the National Union of Mineworkers, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union, police union POPCRU and chemicals union CEPPWAWU. These unions were angry with NUMSA for organising workers from their sectors and accused it of trying to "liquidate" them. On Thursday, according to sources attending the meeting, a decision was taken ahead of the lunch break to hold a vote on the motion to expel. NUMSA is largely outnumbered on the central executive committee and was likely to have lost such a vote. But when NUMSA's opponents returned from lunch they appeared to have a change of heart and called for a postponement "for the sake of unity". The meeting was postponed to November 7 when NUMSA will be given another chance to give reasons why it should not be expelled or suspended. Procedural flaws in convening this week's meeting could have influenced NUMSA's opponents from stepping back from the brink. The agenda and credentials were hotly contested. NUMSA had warned ahead of the meeting it would take legal action should COSATU flout its own constitution in trying to expel the union. COSATU was earlier this year ordered to pay costs after the High Court found that its suspension of Mr Vavi was irregular. This led to him to return to work after an eight-month suspension linked to an affair with a junior employee. The African National Congress (ANC) this week presented its report on its intervention in the long-running factional fight in COSATU, but stopped short of calling for NUMSA's suspension or expulsion. It urged NUMSA to renounce a decision taken at the end of last year to organise workers across sectors, saying this violated a COSATU founding principle of "one industry, one union". The potential expulsion of NUMSA still holds far-reaching implications for the ruling alliance, should it take other unions with it. It would also pave the way for NUMSA to proceed with a Workers Party or Movement for Socialism. The November 7 meeting would now discuss all outstanding issues, including NUMSA's fate, disciplinary action against Mr Vavi, the ANC report, calls for a special national congress and preparations for a central committee meeting. NUMSA's opponents want to ensure it is removed ahead of this crucial meeting, sources said on Thursday. From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2014/10/24/numsa-foes-put-its-expuls ion-on-hold -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
