On March 24 a mob drags an on-duty guard from his car, overturns the vehicle and sets it alight. A month later, a guard is robbed and beaten by men wanting to know why he has not attended union meetings.
This is the public face of a strike that has dragged on in fits and starts since March 23 and could continue unless the government intervenes, according to one union official.
Unions and employers agree that security guard strikes have historically been violent. But the sector’s fractured labour movement, tactical agreement-brokering and deeper problems within the industry appear to have stoked worker frustrations.
“Without violence, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union [Satawu] cannot sustain a strike,” said Tony Botes, who has coordinated pay talks with 16 unions for the Security Services Employers’ Organisation in the industry’s informal bargaining forum.
The talks began in October last year, with unions initially demanding increases of between 4% and 17% in addition to increases in minimum rates. Employers countered with 3%, then clinched a deal for 8,3% on April 1 with 14 of the unions. Satawu, the majority union, refused to sign.
Randall Howard, Satawu’s general secretary, put the current strike in the context of historically violent strikes both under apartheid and as recently as 2003, when, he said, public lawns in central Johannesburg “[looked] like a bloody war zone”.
“Given the work members do, violence in the security industry is not an uncommon feature,” said Howard, “And as long as employers continue to use scabs, there will always be violence. The blood of replacement labour is on the hands of employers, although the union does not condone any violence or intimidation.”
The security industry employs only half the 400 000 security officers registered with the board, said Botes. “For every one out there working, there is one out there looking for work.”
The vulnerability of security guards also accounts for the violence, said Rudi Dicks, a policy official at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Strikes by more secure chemical or metals workers tended to be peaceful.
According to the 2004 Labour Force Survey 70% of private sector security guards work more than 45 hours a week and almost 60% earn less than R1 500 a month.
Outsourcing contract arrangements compound the vulnerability of a poorly paid workforce who “know that the public does not recognise their contribution to society”, Dicks said.
Howard said workers’ anger had been fuelled by “the limitation of their constitutional right to strike”. Metropolitan councils in Pretoria and the Western Cape have refused, since April 8, union applications to hold marches and the union has resorted to picketing employers’ offices.
Howard said the union needed to channel members’ anger through activities like delivering memoranda. Other commentators pointed to the role of union fragmentation and alleged “divide and rule” negotiating tactics. “Intransigence by employers or attempts to divide and rule can lead to violence,” said Wits University’s Eddie Webster.
Thirty-three unions are said to be active in the security industry. This reflected democratic choice, said Moses Mamela, president of one of the smaller bodies, the National Security and Unqualified Workers’ Union.
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has publicly called for stronger organisation in the industry. The proliferation of unions partly explains the tactical agreement brokering between 16 unions and five employer organisations on April 1.
Jackson Simon, Satawu’s national sector coordinator, said that after the negotiations deadlocked the commissioner called back certain unions to work out a deal.
Mamela said he had signed the agreement because the 8,3% offer was acceptable. In addition, employers had convinced many unions, when the parties were on the point of deadlock, that Satawu would not join them in further strike action.
The Labour Court subsequently ruled that as a non-signatory and the majority union, Satawu, was not bound by the April 1 deal.
Last Tuesday a forum of security employer organisations unanimously decided to lock out strikers, appeal against the Labour Court decision and not to conduct further negotiations with Satawu. Botes said the Cosatu union had to agree to the 8,3% award.
Howard’s objective is also to get to the table. “We’ve called on them to stop the legal strategies and do the right thing, come to the table,” he said, “The 11% is negotiable, all we are saying is, we want better than 8,3%.”
Commented Webster: “When the parties aren’t listening to each other, demands and frustration build up — and if the union is not strong, it can lead to violence.
“You need far more systematic mediation and arbitration in a situation like this. And we have very sophisticated mechanisms.”