Crisis of relevance for unions

14 September 2014 - 12:14 By Asha Speckman
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
Cosatu members protest against e-tolling in Pretoria in 2012. File photo
Cosatu members protest against e-tolling in Pretoria in 2012. File photo
Image: GALLO IMAGES

Trade unions aren't just fighting employers. They're fighting each other as union membership drops - a skirmish expected to lead to a jump in strike activity as union bosses seek to prove their relevance.

Figures provided by analysts tell a stark story: union membership has fallen 9% this year to 3 million, down from just less than 3.3 million. This suggests that unions, a pivotal arm in the battle against apartheid and until recently a staunch alliance partner of the ANC, are in danger of losing their relevance among the working class.

For the biggest labour federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), this is not only a blow to the ego, but also cost it R95-million in lost membership fees, according to analysts.

Commentators say there is a clear relationship between the strikes that have crippled the manufacturing and mining sectors and the drop in union subscriptions. They say that unions believe that the quickest way to regain members' confidence is to intensify strikes.

Last year, more than half of strikes were unprotected, says Johan Botes, director of employment practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. There were 114 strikes - a 15% increase on the 99 strikes in 2012, according to the Department of Labour's annual Industrial Action Report.

But Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of Cosatu, this week rejected the claim that the federation had lost more than R90-million in subscription fees, saying Cosatu remained steady at 2.2 million members.

"There is no such thing that we've lost money. Yes, some unions are losing membership but others are gaining. Yes, the National Union of Mineworkers [NUM] has lost, but Numsa [the National Union of Metalworkers, another Cosatu affiliate] is gaining," he says.

Vavi acknowledges that division and the purging of people who disagree with the leadership has weakened Cosatu in the past two years. Due to these internal squabbles, the issue of the new minimum wage is being discussed only now - years after being tabled.

Vavi has been central to these squabbles. He was suspended last June after an office affair, which led to a sharp split between those loyal to Vavi (Irvin Jim's National Union of Metalworkers SA and eight other unions) and those intent on remaining loyal to the ANC - the NUM, the SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) and others in the public sector.

The ANC, which needs Cosatu's membership base, has been brokering "reconciliation" talks, but relations remain strained.

While the unions played politics, members became disenchanted.

Vic van Vuuren, a director at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Pretoria, confirms: "Trade union membership is waning, based on trade union figures that they themselves issue."

Poor representation

Are there deeper reasons than the unionleaders engaged in power plays?

Many workers have either lost their jobs or cancelled their subscriptions to save fees. Others have migrated from the formal to informal sectors where membership is virtually nonexistent.

But there are hints of a deeper problem: a lack of proper representation of workers by unions. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union's (Amcu) steep rise in membership came at the expense of the NUM, after mineworkers on the platinum belt felt the NUM had stopped lobbying for their demands.

If the NUM has lost most of its miners on the platinum belt - about 70000 people - it will have shrunk its membership by a quarter. Assuming those workers pay 1% of their wages in fees, the financial loss to the NUM would be about R50-million a year.

However, Neva Makgetla, an adviser to Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, backs Vavi's argument that Cosatu hasn't lost ground, and says the figures show Cosatu's membership rising from 1.2 million in 1991, to 2 million by 2009, and 2.2 million by 2012.

"That said, growth [in membership"] has primarily been in the predominantly public sector unions, especially Nehawu [National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union], Popcru [Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union], Sadtu and Samwu [South African Municipal Workers' Union]. The share of private-sector unions fell from 80% in 1994 to 58% in 2012. Public service unions were not legal before 1994," she says.

Makgetla says government's labour-force survey found there were 2.8million union members in 2004, rising to 3.7million by this March.

"Nonetheless, union membership has not grown as fast as overall employment, so the share of employees who are in unions fell from 33% in 2004, to 29% in 2009," she says.

Loane Sharp, economist at the Free Market Foundation, says unionisation is much lower than that. Of 15million workers countrywide, there are 3million union members - a 20% unionisation rate, he says.

If civil servants are excluded, the unionisation rate drops to 12%, "which means one in eight workers belong to a union".

Globally, union membership is falling.

Internationally, working conditions have improved, but in developing economies such as South Africa workers are still striving for better conditions, says Van Vuuren.

Sharp says unions are experiencing a "crisis of relevance" because some leaders are living in opulence and workers believe trade unions are not playing an effective role.

Take the recent platinum strike at companies such as Anglo American Platinum, Lonmin and Impala Platinum in Rustenburg. After a five-month strike, unions settled for less than their initial demand of R12500. It'll take those workers 12 years to recover the earnings they lost during the strike.

The website platinumwagenegotiations.co.za shows that employees collectively lost R10.7-billion in earnings while employers lost R24.1-billion in revenue during the strike.

Back to basics

Vavi, perhaps conceding that unions had lost some of their hold, says the bloody battle at Marikana and the De Doorns farmworker uprisings in the Western Cape were an inflection point. Cosatu, he says, has now adopted a policy "to go back to basics" of engaging closely with members.

But he says it is "far-fetched" to say unions face a crisis of relevance. "Who does the South African public rely on to fight corruption? Who does the South African public rely on to fight e-tolls? Just close your eyes and imagine a South Africa without trade unions - our democracy will be weakened," he says.

Koos Bezuidenhout, president of the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), says: "If a crisis of relevance does exist, Fedusa is of the opinion that organised labour should in general become much more responsive to the needs of their members."

Trade unions have to drastically raise the level of debate but in the absence of proper political leadership each organisation pursued its own agenda, causing economic destruction and job losses, Bezuidenhout says.

Bezuidenhout says that Fedusa affiliate the United Association of South Africa (UASA), a multisector union with 7300 members particularly strong in mining, won back the majority of 600 members it temporarily lost to Amcu, and has gained 874 new members.

Bezuidenhout says that "if an intervention in the form of new and focused leadership is not forthcoming, strike action is set to continue with the potential of increasing even further".

Gideon du Plessis, deputy general-secretary of Solidarity, a mainly Afrikaans-speaking union, says that in the past four years Solidarity's membership grew 3.4% to 133000 members.

Du Plessis admits that unions have lost some relevance due to a decline in Cosatu's prominence and sometimes workers are being used for union leaders' self-interest.

"The result is that abused members are slowly starting to become aware of the price they are paying without any real benefit. Nedlac [National Economic Development and Labour Council] as an institution, where social dialogue between leaders of the various stakeholders is supposed to take place, is battling to remain relevant, while parliamentary portfolio committees are slowly but surely taking over this space. Nedlac spokesperson said its processes are complimentary to parliament.

Casual workers' raw deal hard for unions to address

The prevalence of labour brokers who provide temporary workers for the labour market remains a thorn in the side of unions.

At least one union - the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) - struggles to organise in an industry that has a large percentage of casual staff, specifically in call centres, which typically require an around-the-clock, flexible labour component and offer few permanent positions.

Aubrey Tshabalala, provincial secretary for the CWU in Gauteng, said this week perceptions that South Africa's labour market was expensive were incorrect when it was easy for companies to employ casuals cheaply through labour brokers and dismiss them.

According to the Adcorp Employment Index published in July, temporary work accounts for 31.1% of formal-sector employment. Agency work accounts for 25.4% of temporary employment.

Tshabalala said often companies dismissed employees citing the need to become more operationally efficient, "but they employ five people tomorrow, which means they need people".

Tshabalala also said, however, that labour movements had to adapt to embrace the changing environment. "Today you find a 24-hour working environment. It's impossible to get workers at the same place [to congress as a union]."

Compounding this problem is that employment contract conditions discouraged some casuals from joining the union.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week at the annual National Economic Development and Labour Council summit that the National Labour Relations Indaba in November would address root causes of the prevailing hostile labour- relations environment.

Under-fire NUM says it is still blue-collar

The National Union of Mineworkers says its alliance with the ANC does not mean it has lost touch with the working class.

Union spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said "about 67% to 70% of our members in the mining industry are blue-collar workers".

Mammburu said the NUM was still recruiting members without any problems, except in areas with high levels of intimidation.

But the NUM is shedding members to the metal-workers' union Numsa, another affiliate of Cosatu and one that has recently pitched itself as a rival to the NUM.

Experts say the NUM's link to the ANC is both a help and a hindrance. The alliance is seen by some as a short cut to getting an audience with the government, but others say the relationship is too cosy and not helpful to workers.

A number of high-profile NUM leaders have taken positions in the ANC, including Cyril Ramaphosa, Gwede Mantashe and Senzeni Zokwana.

Mammburu said the relationship with the ANC had not hurt his union and had not led to it abandoning blue-collar workers for the middle class.

"All Cosatu affiliates including Numsa are part of the tripartite alliance. The ANC cannot be a reason NUM is being weakened. The ANC is not an employer in the sector we are organising. We had so many strikes since 1994 to advance our members' interests."

The NUM has lost members to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union on the platinum belt , but it remains the strongest union in coal and gold mines in this area - although even this may be under threat.

Amcu was born on the Mpumalanga Highveld, where there are many coal mines and where its leader, Joseph Mathunjwa, is well known. It is busy recruiting NUM members in that area.

Amcu is struggling, however, to establish formal structures and relies mainly on Mathunjwa's charisma and emotional leadership. The union's coffers have been bled by legal fees for its members at the Marikana inquiry.

The NUM faces another challenge from Numsa , which has been recruiting members on mines near power stations.

Numsa, headed by Irvin Jim, supports Zwelinzima Vavi and has been heavily critical of the ANC. Like Mathunjwa, Jim seems to have no allegiance to any politician, least of all President Jacob Zuma.

If anything, he and Numsa seem to be going ahead with plans for forming an organisation to the left of Cosatu and the ANC.

And Numsa seems to be easily recruiting disillusioned NUM members. The latest blow to the NUM was Numsa's recruitment of about 300 people at Glencore's Tweefontein operations in Mpumalanga.

Solidarity, which is often painted as a "whites-only interest group", is sticking with the NUM. - Lucky Biyase

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now