As soon as I had decided to write about how trade union bosses live on the lap of luxury and opulence, I browsed the internet to find more about the subject matter. Little did I know I will come around the above headline which I could not ignore. It was so compelling. Writing in his article titled as above in October 2016 under www.forbes.com, Matt Patterson says ‘And they’re right: there is a wealthy elite bamboozling and coning working class and getting rich off their labour. They’re called union leaders….Good that these union leaders have such sweet salaries still, while many of the working class in those areas and in those industries are struggling to pay rent and feed their families’. Trade union bosses scamming and taking their members for granted and in the process becoming millionaires is a world-wide phenomenon. As a member of the trade union world, Botswana is not by a long shot immune from the said phenomenon. In the context of this conversation, bosses will refer to the political leadership. That is those who are elected at congresses and not those who may be professionally employed by the trade unions on a conventional employer/employee basis. I am making this distinction because professional employees may not necessarily be grounded on trade union ethos and convictions unlike the political leadership who expectedly, talk and walk trade unionism accompanied by its distinct language at every turn.
How many times have you heard trade union bosses accusing their employers of swimming under a pool of luxury and opulence when their employees earn slavery wages under appalling working conditions? This is a call made continually and consistently by trade union bosses the world over. What they do not always tell is that their call against their employers notwithstanding, they themselves have joined the bandwagon by also swimming under the same pool of luxury and opulence their very own members particularly those referred to as the rank and file can only dream of. There can be no legitimacy for these trade union bosses to call out their employers for paying slavery wages. It at best does not add up and at worst hypocrisy of the highest order.
A few weeks ago, weekend spreadsheet in the name of the Sunday Standard reported staggering salaries it said were earned by a local, big trade union bosses. I am deliberately avoiding to name the said trade union here because I believe the levels of salaries thereat more or less compare with those of comparative status. This conversation is not about the said trade union but about how generally, big trade union bosses live in luxury at seemingly, the expense of their members. When contacted, the said trade union spokesman refuted these figures by stating their bosses earned far less than the stated figures. Even if his version is to be believed, it is generally believed seconded bosses particularly from the public sector trade unions still draw their monthly salaries which when added to what they draw from their trade unions could very well match the suggested figures. They are better placed to confirm or dispute this belief. One of the bosses was reported to be earning P 112,000.00 per month while the other who is junior to the former taking home P 90,000.00 per month. The total earned by the former per annum is P 1,344,000.00 million while that of the junior per annum is P 1,080,000.00 million. With these salaries, it is not far-fetched to assume there are other perks in the form of allowances for this and that which push earnings per annum for each of them even far up north. Some of them over and above these mouth-watering earnings, drive fully serviced and fuelled high end motor vehicles.
Comparatively speaking, trade union bosses from big trade unions earn far above ordinary Permanent Secretaries in terms of monthly earnings. Let me state before I forget state that there are two types of trade unions: the big ones are those that are well resourced with healthy membership numbers while the small ones are those with a small membership base and consequently with very low resource base to even afford the cheapest car to run its errands. This conversation is therefore focused on the former. The Botswana Guardian newspaper online edition dated September 18, 2018 reported a story under the heading ‘Meet Botswana’s highest paid servant’. The said highly paid servant was Rre Elias Magosi, the Deputy Permanent Secretary to the President as he was then. The report quoted his then boss Rre Carter Morupisi to have written him by saying ‘You will earn a salary at the rate of P 1,392,564.00 per month (P 116,047 per month….’. It is as clear as daylight is that trade union bosses live the lives of their lifetimes by earning obscene salaries while their rank and file members wallow in debilitating poverty and squalor in terms of slave wages and bad conditions of service as already said. Even if trade union bosses do not earn the suggested salaries, it should be fair to suggest they earn figures close to the suggested.
The implications of the foregoing is a perpetuation of class struggle between the bosses and the downtrodden members of trade unions. Class struggle is defined by www.dictionary as ‘conflict between different classes in a community resulting from different social or economic positions and reflecting opposed interests’. In the case of trade unions resulting from obscene monetary rewards to the bosses, the conflict is demonstrably perpetuated by the haves and the have-nots which is the very evil trade unions preach against at any given opportunity. The interests of the bosses to meaningfully bridge the gap between themselves and the rank and file is significantly diminished if not there at all.
It is almost a foregone conclusion that the general membership of these big trade unions do not know how much their bosses rake home notwithstanding the fact that their very membership’s subscriptions pay such obscene salaries and attendant perks. The bosses do not feel the pinch of the socio-economic circumstances many of their members in particular and Batswana in general are confronted with at every turn. Big trade unions established investment companies whose main purpose was to improve workers’ lives through various benefits. Such investment companies were created in South Africa and Botswana just to mention a few. They were never intended to be gold mines for the bosses. While the concept to set up these initiatives were on the face of it for good intentions, they have since seemingly, become a source of conflict in the trade union world because while they are multi-million generating initiatives, the millions generated therefrom are allegedly being misappropriated by the trade union bosses for their own good with the intended benefit to the general rank and file members feeding on the crumbs if any are always left. The conflict which is referred to as ‘business unionism’ in the South African context, could probably be created by the view held by those who know that these investment initiatives are not managed by professional and operational staff sufficiently capacitated to pay attention to detail such that trade union bosses are kept at bay to avoid sticking their fingers into the cookie jar. It stands to reason that while these investment schemes are run and managed by the professionals, it would appear trade union bosses still find a way around the system to stick in their fingers into the cookie jar.
Are trade unions receiving corresponding returns from their highly paid bosses? This is a fair question to be posed against the widely held view that the more you pay an individual, the more returns you should get. Nothing significant suggests trade union bosses’ salaries are commensurate with what their give back to their trade unions in terms of the expected broader welfare returns to their members. The lives of trade union members remain as miserable as ever before; a big chunk of workers in Botswana still remains unorganised thereby significantly eroding the membership base for trade unionism to have a telling impact on the welfare and well-being of workers; trade union bosses are evidently not pushing employers including government hard enough to concede to workers’ demands of decent work accompanied by attendant reformed labour laws for example. The list is endless. Trade union bosses in my view therefore, are highly paid for little to no tangible returns to their members.
Trade unionism has somewhat lost the initial intentions consequent to vocation being a cash cow of those who lead the movement at the highest echelons. These leaders are placed in the same position as do politicians who have made politics the easiest route to amass wealth and that which comes with it for their personal good and satisfaction. While trade union bosses are forever arguing against the stinking inequalities in the broader societal construct, the very same stinking inequalities exist in their very domain. If this is not hypocrisy of the highest order, I will never know what hypocrisy is. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’. Covid-19 cases are reportedly increasing. Covid-19 safety protocols still remain our last line of defence.
