Читать книгу New South African Review 4 - Devan Pillay - Страница 28

The two competing theses about trade union growth and influence alluded to at the beginning of this chapter can be approached by recognising the many dimensions of power that may be exercised by trade unions. Trade unions exercise power through numbers – not only absolute membership, but also membership as a proportion of potential membership, that is, the degree of union density. At roughly 30 per cent, South African trade unions have retained a relatively high density across sectors and have demonstrated very substantial membership in sectors such as mining, energy and the public service. The stable growth of trade unions has continued despite adverse economic conditions over the past five years and a decline in real wages of workers, although negotiated increases have continued to outpace inflation.

To assume that trade unions are in crisis on the basis of a loss of membership by one union is misleading and underestimates the resilience of trade unions as organisations that further the interests of workers. The NUM may be facing particular challenges, but that does not mean that the whole of Cosatu or the union movement is weakening. This review of trade union growth after apartheid suggests that the numerical strength of the South African union movement has been relatively stable and that Cosatu has become even more dominant within the union movement as a whole.

Trade unions also exercise institutional power – that is, the ability to shape decision making in order to serve their members’ interests. Cosatu’s role in the Alliance and its relationship to the ANC clearly places it in a position of considerable power to influence national politics. This power has arguably grown during the past few years, although not without considerable risk to the cohesiveness of the federation and in individual affiliates, as witnessed by the investigation into the role of the general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, during 2013. The union movement’s influence on government – and that of Cosatu in particular – has also ensured the continuation of a supportive legal and policy environment.

A critical dimension to trade union power is clearly its organisational strength, not only in a numerical sense, but in relation to the degree of unity and cohesion within union structures and their ability to represent the interests of members democratically and coherently, including their administrative capacity. In his analysis of the 2012 mining strike wave, Hartford (op. cit.: 6) summed up the dilemma facing the NUM and other large unions as follows:

The union like any social organisation, is not a static, monolithic entity. It’s a complex entity whose most constant feature is change – change in both its internal processes and a change in its external processes as a social actor and change agent itself. But the change that happens at the very bottom of the union, at the interface of the union shop steward with the member, is the key driver which determines much of the strategic change processes in any union. To understand what is happening in any union, one must investigate this relationship between the member and the shop floor leader in particular. Because if a union loses its capacity to democratically account and promote the views of members, it loses the capacity to hold the loyalty of those members.

This same challenge of ensuring democratic worker control will face new unions such as Amcu who will, over time, have to find ways of responding to these pressures if they are to sustain themselves organisationally. Similarly, trade unions whose internal operations have not been characterised by democratic practices and worker control may well find themselves having to adapt and to ensure greater accountability to members where members demand this as a condition for loyalty and trust.

While trade unions operate along different dimensions of power, it is perhaps this dimension, the organisational power of trade unions, that has been exposed as the Achilles heel of a number of trade unions. After almost two decades of survival and growth in post-apartheid South Africa, continued growth will be significantly affected by the ability of unions to strengthen their day-to-day operations and their representation of their members’ interests.

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