Between marginalisation & revitalisation? the state of trade unionism in South Africa

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the structure and organisation of the contemporary trade union movement in South Africa. It identifies seven broad trends in the labour market and their impact on the labour movement. It then examines the variety of initiatives by unions to tackle the problems generated by these trends. The article suggests that these initiatives are largely ad hoc and uncoordinated. It concludes that there is a need to go beyond traditional union structures to explore imaginative ways of engagement with the unemployed, the new working poor, their own members, employers, government, the new social movements and labour movements in other countries. However, it suggests that it is premature to pronounce the marginalisation of labour in post-apartheid South Africa. If well-coordinated and prioritised, the revitalisation initiatives identified in the article open up the opportunity for labour to contribute towards the emergence of a new jobcreating developmental path in South Africa.

Africa rising?

“…Its success, it would seem from Scully's analysis, depends on NUMSA's ability to engage in politics beyond the shop floor and to mobilise around the identities and issues of the 'kitchen table'. Scully is not alone in this conclusion, and it has long been argued that COSATU should indeed embrace some broader form of 'Social Movement Unionism' reaching out beyond its core constituency of organised labour to other movements of the poor and unemployed (Webster and Buhlungu 2004). The articles in this issue therefore contribute to a critical debate at the centre of the labour movement's current dilemmas.…”

Between Precarity and Paternalism: Farm Workers and Trade Unions in South Africa's Western Cape Province

“…By ignoring worker committees, COSATU squandered an opportunity to build a democratic form of trade unionism that addressed the complex needs of rural dwellers (Hattingh 2013;Wesso, 2013). Unfortunately, COSATU's role in this strike is indicative of a far more widespread problem within the federation -the growing divide between union leadership and rank-and-file workers (Webster and Buhlungu, 2004).…”

The geographies of community‐oriented unionism: scales, targets, sites and domains of union renewal in South Africa and beyond

“…It soon became apparent that the multi‐class character of the ANC organisation and its representatives in government was susceptible to pressure from associations, think tanks and managers of domestic capital and from international financial and development agencies (Bond 2000). The alliance soon proved insufficient for organised labour to secure working class interests (Webster and Buhlungu 2004). COSATU launched nation‐wide anti‐privatisation strikes in 2000, 2001 and 2002; continued pressure from left‐wing forces within (and outside) the tripartite alliance arguably led the government to reconsider many of its more radical neoliberal targets and to increase certain forms of social spending (Harrison 2006).…”

“…Webster (2006) estimated that of a 12 million strong workforce in 2006, just over half were in standard employment relationships; in only two of COSATU’s 21 affiliates was the percentage of members outside standard employment relationships more than 10 per cent. Casualisation and informalisation of employment is leading to what Webster and Buhlungu (2004) labelled a crisis of representation. Such a crisis occurs when organised labour, in part through its own success, ends up representing a well‐protected, but declining, core of workers while being non‐representative of the working class as a whole.…”