In the wake of Labour Day on May 1 it’s worth exploring some of the misunderstandings and myths about the state of South African trade unions. All too often those perceptions reflect international experiences and academic theories rather than our own realities. Their persistence is surprising given the importance of the unions for the country’s democracy.
Two assumptions are particularly widespread among both supporters and critics of the labour movement. First, there’s the belief that the labour movement is doomed to shrink over time. Second, many people assume the unions’ top priority is to influence policy debates, with wage negotiations coming a close second. As with any good myth, both narratives have a bit of truth, but it’s submerged in a morass of misunderstanding.
The share of workers who belong to a union has been essentially flat for about 20 years, fluctuating at 25%-27% in the formal private sector and 60%-65% in the public sector. In other words, since the early 2000s union membership has kept up with the growth in jobs and the labour force. However, that rate of growth lags far behind the explosive expansion in the 1990s after the effective legalisation of union membership for African workers.
Today, outside the public sector, even formal workers still lack union protection. Moreover, virtually no informal workers are members, and neither are more than 90% of domestic and agricultural workers (despite some progress in agriculture since 2020). At the other end of the scale, about 80% of mineworkers and 35% of formal manufacturing workers have a union. The other economic sectors range between these extremes.
Sectoral differences largely reflect the continued failure to find ways to organise workers in smaller businesses. In formal enterprises with more than 20 employees union density averages 35% in all industries; in those with fewer than 20 workers the figure drops to just more than 15%.
These trends leave the labour movement vulnerable to changes in the structure of the economy. If the economy shifts into new services and kinds of production the unions could end up falling behind or even losing members. Government policy explicitly targets a move away from dependence on the mining value chain, where union density is highest.
A second misconception is that the unions exist mostly to fight for a more just and inclusive society and economy. In fact, unions arose to protect their members in the workplace through collective action for better pay and conditions and by helping individual workers who face harassment or unfairness from their employers.
This function is critical, not only for individual workers but for the enforcement of labour laws that seek to prevent unjust discrimination and maintain socially acceptable standards of safety, working time and pay. Ultimately, those laws rely on workers to initiate complaints.
After all, the government cannot, and should not, oversee every enterprise. As a result, the labour laws are most effective where unions can assist individual workers with technical expertise as well as through collective bargaining.
That said, the ability of unions to function effectively in the workplace depends heavily on the broader economic and political context. In South Africa high joblessness and deep inequalities are the biggest threat to workers’ ability to make gains in the workplace. However, policy engagements to address these threats require both technical expertise and members’ mandates.
That in turn imposes difficult trade-offs on unions, which always have limited resources. The establishment of federations enables individual unions to share some of the cost. Still, the huge upsurge in policy engagements since the establishment of democracy poses a continual challenge.
Ultimately, we cannot imagine democracy in South Africa without the labour movement. Its importance both as a voice for working people and in shaping workplace culture and fairness means all of us should spend more time understanding its dynamics and needs.
• Makgetla is a senior researcher with Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.