In the mid-Eighties, the image of the South African worker was the miner in a hard hat, the symbol of an industrial economy.
Today that symbol has changed: toilers of the 21st century are found in call centres, or on the streets doing piece-work as part of the burgeoning, almost one-million strong informal sector.
The desperate person at the traffic light, with a poster board saying ”no job”, is also a symbol of the worker of today, testimony to the fact that one in three economically active South Africans is unemployed.
This changing face of labour poses enormous challenges for trade unionism because past ways of organising and building no longer apply.
A survey of union federations this week reveals a movement struggling to come to terms with the rising challenge of new economic forces.
Three of the four major South African federations — the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) — have shown either stagnation or a decline in their membership figures.
The predominantly Afrikaner federation, Solidarity, the darling of white workers bearing the brunt of affirmative action, was the only federation that had seen membership growth, with a 2 000-member increase every month, said spokesperson Dirk Hermann. He said that Solidarity’s growth was based on its ability to service members.
Other factors have contributed to the negative growth rate of the other trade unions. The new economy, in the form of globalisation, has led to intense competitive pressure because of the changing ways that goods are being produced and the acceleration in the mobility of capital.
The local clothing industry has lost tens of thousands of jobs as companies have gone to the wall because tariffs have come down so quickly in the past 10 years.
Casualisation and outsourcing now characterise the economy. Surveys show that up to half of the workforce is now casually employed, especially in sectors where women workers predominate, like the retail industry — though miners are also increasingly employed as outsourced labour.
Employers adopt these forms of work to get around labour laws, though the government is trying to crack down.
This labour market segmentation is leaving unions with shrinking membership.
”New forms of industrial organisation, such as the casualisation of labour, are undermining traditional union solidarity,” said Cosatu’s coordinator in the secretariat office, Oupa Bodibe.
Unions need to respond to the changes in the labour market structure and adjust themselves to cater both for their traditional constituencies and to recruit from non-traditional constituencies, such as professionals, casual workers and the informal sector, said Steven Friedman, senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies.
But organising in new sectors is difficult. Professionals are union-shy and casual workers are too poor to pay subscriptions. Organising the fractured and ever-changing informal sector is a huge financial challenge.
Bodibe said the stiff competition that South African companies are facing from cheaper imports, as well as a drive to take advantage of the export market, have added to an altered labour market structure.
The general secretary of Fedusa, Chez Milani, agrees. ”The gradual change from an industrial economy to a global economy has resulted in retrenchments as the industry needs to become more competitive,” he said.
Although the economy is enjoying a 3% growth rate, this is ”jobless growth”, Milani said.
According to Hermann, ”There is an increasing shift of blue-collar workers into the white-collar sector. This means that they are using their skills rather than unions to protect themselves. This could potentially breed a culture of non-unionism in South Africa.”
Cosatu believes it can counteract this trend of casualisation in major sectors such as manufacturing and mining by merging the different trade union affiliates according to industrial classification to create super unions. The Food and Agricultural Workers’ Union, the South African Agricultural Plantation and Allied Workers’ Union, and the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union would, for example, merge under an agriculture, forestry and fishing classification.
Effective recruitment programmes that include membership benefits, employment-creation strategies and ”rescue plans” for affiliates failing to pay membership fees form part of the drive to curb further declines in membership.
Besides the long-term effect on unions of the decline of the working class, there is a more immediate problem — money.
Nactu and Cosatu are struggling financially. Eleven out of 19 trade unions affiliated to Cosatu are in financial difficulties and are battling to pay their affiliation fees, resulting in financial backlogs. Now Cosatu is fighting to retain and recruit personnel. In 2000, for example, affiliation fees totalled about R23-million, while total expenditure was about R30-million.
To attract members, Solidarity has adopted a welfarist union model that provides protection of employment, skills development and provision of benefits, credit support, legal assistance and advisory services. For example, Fin-Q, a financial services arm, advises members on providing for retirement.
”The role of Solidarity in providing services such as skills improvement, pension funds, and medical insurance has helped enhance workers’ perception of union effectiveness and ensured their loyalty,” said Hermann.
Nactu’s general secretary, Cunningham Ngcukana, said: ”If trade unions are to [counteract] the effects of a rapidly globalised economy, they need to rethink their structures and strategies and build solidarity across sectors and borders.”
The state of the labour federations in South Africa
Cosatu
The Congress of South African Trade Unions is big mama federation. Formed in 1985, it is in a political alliance with the ruling African National Congress, though relations have been strained since 1994.
The federation practices a blend of shop-floor and social unionism and is considered a key national player. It has policy and opinion on most issues — most notably the macro-economy, industrial strategy and HIV/Aids. But it also pronounces regularly on aspects of working-class life including soccer and issues of global concern, such as the war on Iraq.
Membership: About 1,7-million members — has lost 112 000 members in the past year to retrenchments. The changing nature of work from full time to casual makes organising difficult.
Future plans: Effective recruitment programmes that include membership benefits, employment creation strategies and ”rescue plans” for ailing
affiliates form part of drive to curb further membership drops.
Fedusa
The Federation of Unions of South Africa is a largely white-collar union that has eclipsed the National Council of Trade Unions as the second-largest federation. Its model is more conservative than that of Cosatu and it favours cooperative agreement between labour, business and the state.
Membership: Membership figures have see-sawed since its formation in 1997, when it had 450 000 members. This figure grew to 570 000 in 1999 and is currently 540 000. The fall is attributed to jobless growth and to the increasingly skilled face of the workforce.
Future plans: Promoting dialogue between the government, employers and labour; lobbying for labour-based job creation. Focus areas include the youth, women (the fastest growth area) and retirees who can ”offer knowledge and experience”.
Nactu
At 17 years, the National Council of Trade Unions is the second-oldest trade union federation, though its star is waning. In general, says general secretary
Cunningham Ngcukana, trade unions are ”bleeding”.
Membership: Nactu, the country’s third-largest union federation, has 350 000 members. The largest of its unions is the National Union of Farmworkers with 47 140 members. Membership is declining, though figures on the rate of decline were not available.
Future plans: Nactu says it will rethink its structures and strategies.
Solidarity
Solidarity is a predominantly white union known formerly as the Mynwerkersunie (Mineworkers’ Union). It is trying to reinvent itself by shedding its racist image and diversifying its members’ demographics.
Membership: The union has 130 000 members, an increase from 38 000 in 1994. Ninety percent are white. The rest are predominantly coloureds in the Western Cape.
Two factors explain the jump in membership: it campaigns against equity and runs a welfarist union model. Eighty-seven percent of its members are Afrikaans-speaking.
Solidarity organises across the board, with its strongest pockets in the parastatals, the mining industry and at Iscor.
Future plans: Building up its member-support services and serving as a watch-dog, mainly for white workers, in the areas of black economic mpowerment and employment equity.
Consawu
The newest player, the Confederation of South African Workers’ Unions was launched last month. It aims to fill a vacuum left by other unions by attracting non-unionised workers. Only about 50% of South Africa’s workforce belong to unions.
Membership: It claims to have 400 000 signed-up members in 20 affiliates ranging from fishing, mining, trade, clothing and construction trade unions.
Future plans: Consawu will work with Cosatu, Fedusa and Nactu on ”matters of common interest”, according to the federation’s website.