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

Abstract

The labour market in rural areas of South Africa's Western Cape province has undergone considerable changes over the last thirty years. New labour and tenure legislation protecting farm workers combined with trade liberalisation, the abolition of subsidies and in-migration from other areas of South Africa has significantly reshaped labour on commercial farms. There is an increasing divide between permanent farm workers and a growing pool of precariously employed workers who labour seasonally on farms and are frequently employed through labour brokers. These divisions came to a head in 2012 when workers, many of whom work seasonally on farms, launched a strike that was to last for six months. Trade unions have struggled to organise an increasingly fragmented rural labour market and at the same time negotiate the forms of paternalism that continue to exert a strong influence over rural labour relations. Based on interviews with trade union organisers, this article examines how they have responded to the twin challenges of labour broking and paternalism. The farm strikes highlight the need for a form of social movement unionism that goes beyond wage demands and tackles the multiple factors that influence poverty in rural areas.

A Decent House, a Decent Job, a Decent Life: Social Reproduction Theory and Working Class Organizing in Cape Town.

“…Strikes have intensified in the mining sector in the wake of the 2012 Marikana Massacre, where, following a wildcat strike by workers in the platinum belt, 34 miners were killed by police on August 16. The strike wave that followed spilled over into the agricultural sector (Webb 2017) and in 2015 the largest strike in South African history saw 70 000 mineworkers walk off the job for five months. Later that year the #FeesMustFall student movement spread across the country, shutting down campuses and demanding free, decolonized education and an end to outsourcing on campuses, mobilizations which have continued albeit less intensely (Ashman et al 2017).…”

Working in Chains: African Informal Workers and Global Value Chains

“…In the context of agriculture, realizing this globalizing vision involved a battery of reforms to liberalize agricultural markets that had previously been biased in support of white commercial farmers, and to extend labor legislation to offer greater protection for agricultural workers (Bolt, 2016; du Toit, 2009; Visser, 2016, p. 19; Webb, 2017). This involved the phasing out of marketing boards and the removal of tariffs and subsidies to white farmers from 1996.…”

“…As market liberalization and integration into export value chains squeezed commercial margins of fruit farmers, they responded by cutting labor costs in the struggle to survive the new pressures of deregulation and compliance with corporate codes and standards. While fruit exports increased with integration in GVCs, the number of people employed in agriculture nearly halved between 1988 and 2012 (Webb, 2017, p. 52). Far from reversing the oppressive agrarian labor relations experienced under Apartheid, integration into GVCs set in motion new competitive dynamics of casualization, outsourcing and externalization of labor in an effort to reduce labor costs (Visser, 2016, p. 23; Webb, 2017, p. 52).…”

“…While fruit exports increased with integration in GVCs, the number of people employed in agriculture nearly halved between 1988 and 2012 (Webb, 2017, p. 52). Far from reversing the oppressive agrarian labor relations experienced under Apartheid, integration into GVCs set in motion new competitive dynamics of casualization, outsourcing and externalization of labor in an effort to reduce labor costs (Visser, 2016, p. 23; Webb, 2017, p. 52). While demand for skilled workers increased on some farms, unskilled workers found themselves replaced by mechanization or rendered more precarious by casualization and outsourcing (Webb, 2017, p. 52).…”

“…This is especially true of poor informal labor in African countries, where poverty and informality have conventionally been attributed to a lack of connections with the global economy, and African while local workers are associated with low productivity and little value creation. Despite Africa’s growth resurgence, with growth rates averaging 3 to 5 per cent annually since 2004, poverty continues to afflict 40 per cent of the population across the continent, unemployment has risen to alarming levels, and burgeoning informal economies employ 85.8 percent of the labor force (African Development Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [AfDB/OECD], 2017, p. 5; 2018: p. xv; International Labour Organization [ILO], 2018; World Economic Forum [WEF], 2017). The failure of growth to trickle down or provide jobs is compounded by a demographic tsunami, with African populations growing at 2.5 per cent annually—twice the global average (Meagher, 2016; Filmer & Fox, 2014).…”