Buch, Englisch, Band 22, 379 Seiten, Format (B × H): 143 mm x 215 mm, Gewicht: 478 g
Reihe: Labour Studies
Privatisation, Precarious Work and Labour in South Africa
Buch, Englisch, Band 22, 379 Seiten, Format (B × H): 143 mm x 215 mm, Gewicht: 478 g
Reihe: Labour Studies
ISBN: 978-3-593-51047-7
Verlag: Campus
Autoren/Hrsg.
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Weitere Infos & Material
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 9
1 Introduction 13
1.1 Central Research Question and Aims of Research 16
1.2 Overview of the Book 18
2 Theoretical Framework: Solidarity and Trade Union Power Resources 21
2.1 Scales of Power: Conceptualising Workers’ Power Resources 21
2.2 Power through Organisation 31
2.3 The Power to Disrupt Within and Outside the Workplace 35
2.4 Society as an Ally 37
2.5 The Dual Character of Institutional Power 40
2.6 Trade Union Strategies between Inclusive and Exclusive Solidarity 42
2.7 Interim Conclusion and Stages of Inquiry 44
3 Methodology and Research Design 47
3.1 Setting the Stage: The Selection of the Three Research Sites 48
3.2 Participant Observation and Problem-centred Interviews 51
3.3 Analysing the Field with the Extended Case Method 61
3.4 Conducting Research in a Contested Field 64
4 From Apartheid to Post-Apartheid: Labour in a Contested Terrain 69
4.1 Contesting the Labour Regime, Building Associational Power: A Brief History of the South African Labour Movement 69
4.2 From the Freedom Charter to GEAR: Conflicts within the Alliance on Macroeconomic Policy 78
4.3 Privatising Local Government: The Legislative Framework 83
4.4 The Fragmentation of the South African Labour Market: Core, Non-core, Periphery 89
4.5 The South African Labour Movement at a Crossroads 96
5 Privatisation and the Commodification of Public Services in Johannesburg and Cape Town 105
5.1 The Post-Apartheid Challenge: Restructuring Johannesburg 106
5.2 Hollowing out the local state: iGoli 2002 110
5.3 The SAMWU Response to iGoli 2002 116
5.4 Restructuring and Privatisation in Cape Town 127
5.5 The SAMWU Response to Privatisation 136
6 A Partial Inclusive Union Strategy: Organising a Fragmented Municipal Workforce in Johannesburg 141
6.1 Facing the Divide: The increasing Fragmentation of the Workforce in Pikitup 141
6.2 Contesting what a Labour Broker is: The Triangular Employment Relationship in Pikitup 153
6.3 The Manufacturing of Insecurity in the Workplace 160
6.4 The Pikitup Strike of 2011 166
6.5 Failing Interactions between Contract Workers and SAMWU 195
6.6 A Sense of Belonging: CWP Workers seeking Union Representation 209
6.7 Interim Conclusion: A Partial Inclusive Strategy of Union Representation 218
7 An Inclusive Union Strategy: Organising a Fragmented Municipal Workforce in Cape Town 221
7.1 Confronting the Effects of Privatisation in Cape Town 221
7.2 Experiences in Organising Workers in Private Waste Companies 237
7.3 The Campaign against Labour Broking in Cape Town 245
7.4 An Uphill Battle: Taking up the Struggle of EPWP Workers 256
7.5 Mobilising Power Resources: Extending the Core 288
7.6 Logistical Power and the Contested Post-Apartheid Order 290
7.7 Discursive Power and the Legitimacy of Claims 294
7.8 Labour and Community Alliances in Cape Town 296
7.9 Interim Conclusion: An Inclusive Union Strategy 302
8 An Exclusive Union Strategy: Organising a Fragmented Municipal Workforce in Ekurhuleni 305
8.1 Conditions and Effects of Outsourcing in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 305
8.2 “SAMWU we need our jobs back”: Cleaning Workers in Ekurhuleni 311
8.3 Alternative Forms of Organisation: The Casual Workers Advice Office in Germiston 318
8.4 Exclusive Solidarity: SAMWU’s Strategy towards Non-core Workers 320
9 Conclusion 325
Figures 335
Tables 337
Abbreviations 339
References 342
Index 377
Acknowledgements
Ethnographic research is a journey – intense, time-consuming, surprising and rewarding. I am grateful to many people on this journey. First and most importantly, I am indebted to all the workers who shared their time and their stories. Their struggle for a better life and a just society in South Africa continues.
I would like to thank shop stewards and officials from the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU), many of whom were expelled or dismissed for raising legitimate concerns about the financial management of the union, seeking to increase the political independence of SAMWU and the notion of worker control. Some of them now form part of the new federation, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU). I am not able to name all Comrades with whom I had the privilege of spending time and of working together, particularly in the two SAMWU regions, Johannesburg and Cape Town. I trust you know who you are.
I am particularly indebted to Stephen Faulkner, a dedicated unionist, for his support and friendship. I would also like to thank Hilary Wainwright and Lawrence Ntuli, with whom I conducted some of the interviews together, for the fruitful research collaboration. I extend my thanks to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO), the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG) and in particular, the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) for its hospitality and the continuing cooperation.
This project and the extended period of field research would not have been possible without the generous support of the Hans Böckler Foundation (HBS) who provided me with a dissertation fellowship. I am also grateful to the HBS liaison lecturer, Leo Kißler from Marburg University, for his excellent support.
This project also greatly benefited from a stimulating research environment at the Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand. From 2012 to 2014 I joined its cluster Decent Work and Development Initiative as a visiting researcher and was appointed as an international research associate at SWOP in 2017. I am most grateful to Edward Webster for his continuous support and research collaboration. I greatly appreciate the many discussions we have had on workers’ power, the organisation of precarious and informal workers and the South African labour movement. I have learned so much from him.
This book is a shortened and slightly revised version of my doctoral thesis in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies at Giessen University. I could not have had a better and more encouraging supervisor than Dieter Eißel with whom I also had the privilege to work in the field of political economy at Gießen University.
I would also like to thank my second supervisor Klaus Dörre for his support and the possibility to participate in the graduate seminar at the Department of Labour, Industrial and Economic Sociology at Jena University. My thanks also extend to all participants of the graduate seminar and the working group ‘Strategic Unionism’ from whose discussions I have greatly benefited. As ‘engaged researchers’ and ‘public sociologists’ who are committed to working and seeking a close exchange with trade unions and other civil society actors, Eddie Webster, Dieter Eißel and Klaus Dörre have significantly shaped my scientific understanding.
Many colleagues and friends contributed to the discussions and completion of the dissertation process: I would like to thank Alexander Grasse and his team for the support and long-standing close collaboration, Peter Schmidt for his participation in the dissertation committee, Jane Barrett, Oliver Brüchert, Elijah Chiwota, Simone Claar, Kally Forrest, Valentine Goldmann, Daniel Heinz, Heike Horn, Pat Horn, Birthe Kleber, Jan Labitzke, Susanne Martin, Tara Rahimi, Christine Resch, Ute Schneider, Alexander Wagner, and in particular Jürgen Schraten.
I would also like to thank Tony Waine for his patience and flexibility in reading through the final book manuscript, Christoph Roolf and the supportive Campus publishing team.
Last but not least, I would like to remember those who passed away during the completion of this project but continue to serve as a source of inspiration: Petrus Mashishi, the founding president of SAMWU; Michael Blake from ILRIG; Vinnie Kanzi, who always provided a home for me in Khayelitsha; our friend Linda Herold; and my father, Josef Ludwig.
Johannesburg, January 2019 Carmen Ludwig
1 Introduction
The two years during which I conducted research in South Africa, from 2012 to 2014, were a tumultuous time for the South African labour movement. Although there were signs of a crisis within the labour movement before that time, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) was still regarded as a powerful force and one of the most influential political players. In 2012, with 2.2 million members, organised in 19 unions, COSATU represented the bulk of trade union members, the majority of them being labourers and skilled workers (COSATU 2012a, 8, 13–5).
In 2012 3.06 million union members were organised in 196 registered trade unions in South Africa, which matched a union density of slightly more than 30 per cent (DoL 2013, 27). At the time, the Federal Union of South Africa (FEDUSA) with a total membership of 450,000 and the National Congress of Trade Unions (NACTU) with about 300,000 members were the second and third largest labour federations in the country (NEDLAC 2012). The three trade union federations differed in many respects, particularly in their membership composition, their structure as well as their political trajectory and identity (see for a detailed comparison Ludwig 2017a; Macun 2014; Webster and Buhlungu 2004).
However, since 2012 the largest federation of the country has found itself on the brink of a split, and its affiliates have been confronted with the decision about how to define their role, particularly in relation to the ruling party, the ANC and the SACP, with whom COSATU has formed an alliance since 1990. The dilemma came to a head in December 2013 when COSATU’s largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), decided not to support the ruling party, the African National Congress, in the April 2014 elections. Instead, it announced that it would be forming a United Front, where unions would move beyond organising around traditional workplace concerns in order to address community struggles. This initiative triggered a debate on the future political and organisational direction of the South African labour movement. In 2017, a new federation was launched, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), which with about 700,000 members is the second-largest federation at present.
A watershed moment that contributed to the dynamics within the labour movement was the Marikana massacre near Rustenburg on the 16th August 2012, in which 34 miners were killed by the police and 78 were injured. Rock drill operators went on an unprotected strike in demand of a living wage of R12,500 that was about three times their salary. The strike, which was characterised by violence, as eight strikers, police and security personnel lost their lives, lasted more than six weeks and ended with mine workers achieving a wage increase of up to 22 per cent and a single payment of R2,000. In a nutshell, Marikana has brought the post-apartheid reality to the fore: the willingness of the state, led by the former liberation movement, to respond to labour disputes and community protests with violence, the endurance of the apartheid wage gap, an established trade union movement losing touch with their membership base, and the contested nature of the post-apartheid labour relations system (Chinguno 2013; Sinwell and Mbatha 2016). In South Africa, social conflicts, particularly in the form of community protests are on the rise, indicating that the ANC’s slogan in the first democratic election in 1994 of “a better life for all” has not materialised for the majority of black South Africans. The rise in popular protests is matched by a parallel increase in labour conflicts and, in particular, unprotected strikes.
Many scholars agree that trade unions in South Africa are faced with a fundamental crisis of representation as they have largely failed to organise an increasingly precarious workforce. Less than one third of the economically active population are part of the core of formal sector workers with stable employment relationships, wages, benefits and access to democratic worker and trade union rights (von Holdt and Webster 2005). The majority is located outside of contracted work because they are informal workers or unemployed.
Although COSATU and its affiliates have repeatedly stressed the need to organise vulnerable workers outside comparatively stable employment relationships, little progress has been made. More than 90 percent of CO-SATU members have a permanent full-time position and are located in the core of the labour market (COSATU 2012a: 14). The fragmentation of employment relationships across sectors has consequences for trade union politics and organising as it undermines labour standards and unions gains, and erodes the basis of solidarity in the workplace. This makes organising a complex task and limits trade unions’ ability to speak for the broad working class in South Africa (Buhlungu 2010: 96; von Holdt and Webster 2008; Webster and Buhlungu 2004; Kenny and Webster 1998). As Barchiesi argues, “unions often face a dilemma: casualization undermines them, but their organizational tools are inadequate to contest it” (Barchiesi 2011: 78).
This contradiction between problem awareness and practice triggered my interest in learning about the concrete strategies that unions apply when confronted with workplace fragmentation, their interactions with precarious and informal workers, and the reasons for their successes or failures. While there is a range of studies on the extent, causes and impact of precarious work in general, and in municipalities in particular (Barchiesi 2011; Lier 2009; Samson 2003), there has been limited research on the concrete strategies and practices of trade unions in responding to these challenges.
This study seeks to explain whether and how trade unions are able to build solidarity in a society that is characterised by a severe social crisis: persistently high levels of unemployment, increasing social inequalities and social conflicts as well as a highly fragmented labour market, in which the majority of the economically active population are located outside the standard employment relationship. In the face of workplace fragmentation, trade unions can either follow a strategy of exclusive solidarity, where they either defend the relative privileges of their membership in the core, or aim at building inclusive solidarity (Hyman 2001, 170) by including those at the margins of the workplace or in society. Whether trade unions will be able to find ways of reaching out to fragmented workforces is one of crucial questions for the future viability of trade unions, and not only in South Africa.
