The decline of the black trade unions
John Gomomo, COSATU President - Financial Mail, 24 February
International Viewpoint #266 May1995
South Africa
00 by Cde Darcy
"For the last ten years and more growth has been at a standstill, investments have fallen back dramatically, and average real incomes have shrunk. The economy remains dependent on mineral exports, and the industrial sector is not capable of creating jobs, of providing the population's basic needs, or of competing on the world market.... Industry is working at a low percentage of capacity. Speculative investments have taken the place of productive investments, leading to a decline in job opportunities..
(Reconstruction and Development Programme 4.1.4)
The government's Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) is an ambitious document. Starting from the above bleak picture of South African reality, the document sets out ambitious goals, including a thorough-going social democratisation of the country, combined with rapid economic development, in order to supply badly needed jobs, housing, education and other social needs.
But how can these goals be reached? The dilemma is that productivity in South Africa is too low to compete with the industrialised countries in an increasingly integrated world market. And at the same time, South African production costs are too high to compete with countries like China and Indonesia, which are also characterised by low productivity but 'offer' still lower wages.
According to Labour Minister Tito Mboweni, South Africa has to choose "either to orient upwards and base its economy on quality, reliability and inventiveness, or to orient downwards and take on the Chinas and Indonesias of the
"You can't put Jabu Xulu, who is earning $50 a week after 15 years and supporting a family of five, in the same room with John Smith, the managing director of a big company who is earning $5000 a week, and expect that [reaching agreement] will be a peaceful, easy process. But we have to manage to bring them together, because otherwise we (the new democracy) will be shipwrecked on the rocks of continual conflict." 1995 12 world... We do not hesitate to recommend the road of high productivity." (Business Day, 9 Sept. 1994)
This is the kernel of the new transformation of labour relations, until now based entirely on collective bargaining. The RDP (it is said) can however only be carried out if the black trade-union movement is enlisted as a social partner of the government and employers in order to work together for economic reconstruction. But the hard struggle against apartheid sowed deep political divisions and suspicions between
International Viewpoint #266 May 1995 black workers and their employers.
To attain this goal of partnership, Minister Mboweni set up a working group last July, which in February published proposals for a new Labour Relations Act. This is now being examined by NEDLAC (the National Economic, Development and Labour Council: a national advisory body made up of officials, employers and trade unionists). A final draft will be presented to parliament and voted on before the end
One of the recommendations is to supplement negotiations (preferably industry-wide) with a "second channel" of co-determination at the work place level. The draft bill proposes a model of "work place forums", similar to German or Dutch works councils, that can be created in companies with more than 100 employees in order to involve the personnel in decision-making.
The draft bill breaks with the existing system in other ways as well. It foresees the creation of an extensive apparatus for mediation and arbitration in labour conflicts. Employers' existing obligation to negotiate with union bargaining agents over working conditions is to be abolished. Furthermore, the existing freedom to strike over any dispute is to be restricted, through a prohibition on strikes over issues that, according to the bill, should go to arbitration or the courts. accompanying the Draft Bill the intention of mechanisms that introduce worker participation is that they "should lead to increased productivity and profitability." (Government Gazette February 1995, #16259). Not surprisingly, these recommendations have been enthusiastically welcomed by politicians and academics. forums" in particular have been harshly criticized by both employers and the trade-union movement.
For employers, work place forums mean extra costs for meetings, i.e. lost working time and other expenses, at precisely the moment when costs have to be pushed down in order to compete on the world market. They also limit managements' ability to run their companies as they see fit.
In a number of large companies management has already set up participatory management bodies on the Japanese model: with more restricted, advisory powers, put in place in order to inspire workers to increase productivity. For many in management, setting up a legally obligatory system, in which the black unions would play an important role and - still worse - in which management would have to supply the work place forum with all necessary information over the company's business, is going too far.
In the unions as well, there are many concerns. The bill emphasizes that the country's British-inspired collective bargaining system and unions' interests as such are not in any way to be attacked, and provides that a work place forum can only be formed where a union representing a majority of employees requests it.
Nonetheless, COSATU considers the proposal "threatening". For example, there is no provision in the bill for eliminating a work place forum, even if a union loses its majority. Even worse is the fact that the bill requires consultation over productionrelated issues, but rejects COSATU's demand that employers be required to negotiate over these issues. From this standpoint, co-determination looks like a tricky way to restrict collective bargaining, in which the union always has the strike weapon at its disposal.
In short, there are fears that work place forums will compete with the trade unions, at a time when many unions are having a hard enough time maintaining their
Underlying this defensive attitude are the problems that COSATU is encountering in the new South Africa. Almost three million employees (37% of the total) are union members, of whom 1.3 million (16%) are in unions affiliated with COSATU (1). But, after rapid growth in the 1980s, membership has hardly
Since the elections another problem has made its appearance: the unions" leading bodies have been substantially weakened by the diversion of many union leaders into the government and politics at the national, provincial and local levels. This has resulted in a substantial decline in the leadership's ability to lead. A certain level of doubt has also arisen in the rank and file at the sight of former leaders and activists who now occupy positions of power alongside the old white oppressors.
The differences are indeed great. The employers, and daily life in the companies, have scarcely changed since April 1994. Even The Management Brief, admits that an "archaic mentality" exists among South African employers. Even if many acknowledge democratisation can lead to improved productivity, management's attitudes often remain "colonial" (The Sun, 10 Mar.
It is in these circumstances that the unions are expected to give up the strike weapon over economic and social issues and to trust in dialogue with employers. This strikes many leading activists as irresponsible.
In practice, there is not much evidence of a new spirit of co-operation, in either the public or the private sector. One reason is undoubtedly that ordinary (black) workers expect more from a democratically elected government than from the old white regime. For example, 3.9 million workdays were lost last year to strike actions, compared with 6m. at the high point of the struggle in 1986 (Finance Week,30 Mar.
The first three months of this year were relatively peaceful (60,000 strike days, compared with 295,000 in the same period last year). But these actions were characterized by an exceptional bitterness, particularly in the public sector. Most striking was the police strike: the South African Police Union, established in 1993 as a counter-weight to the militant Prison Officers and Police Civil Rights Union, has suddenly taken the lead in a massive action for increases in meager police
At the same time the government is under pressure to decrease public sector expenditures, particularly the wage and salary costs of the oversized post-apartheid civil service. Cutbacks are leading to action by civil servants, which sometimes gets out of hand. In February President Mandela warned trade unions against "anarchists" in their ranks; COSATU President John Gomomo warned the government against starting a "witch-hunt"
The economy is expected to grow 3% this year: the first meaningful growth since the 1980s. Investments also increased last year, and there is already talk of shortages of skilled labour. According to economist David Mohr, this means "the end of declining salaries and loans". In the private sector, wage demands account for half of all strikes. Soon the most important contract negotiations — for the mines, industry and the auto sector — will begin. Expect conflicts.
1. In 1979 the apartheid regime, under pressure from the rising black labour movement, was forced for the first time to grant legal recognition to black trade unions. Since then most of these trade unions have joined together under COSATU's banner, and they set the tone for the labour system.
Reprinted from the Dutch solidarity paper Amandla (fax +31 20/627 0441)
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