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Economic recession, obdurate employers, high rates of unemployment, escalating repression and violence – none of these stopped the numerical growth of the metal unions throughout the 1980s. Many saw the mid eighties, when a State of Emergency was declared, as a cut-off point for the coming of age of the metal unions and the new union movement. Naawu’s Adler observed: ‘I think at that stage there was a self-conscious union movement. There was a large number of organised workers and a coherent leadership. And by the time of the formation of Cosatu, where a whole lot of new dynamics started to arise, particularly in relation to the political process, there was a substantial union movement which had been built from nothing.’

This ‘large number of organised workers’ with a ‘coherent leadership’ would have implications in the attainment of union power. To use Macun’s category, the unions now exercised ‘organisational power’, the mechanism through which the working class pursues its interests. Organisational power is determined by factors such as the level of unionisation, the degree of unity and cohesion within the union structure, representational and administrative capacity and the degree of cooperation with political parties (see Appendix).⁴²

A deteriorating economic and political climate had produced a militant workforce with a highly developed sense of common purpose. This, combined with the innovative and strategic thinking of a mature leadership, had allowed these metal unions to build and maintain significant levels of organisational coherence which they would wield in furthering their members’ interests.

Richard Lester has pointed to ‘the naive notion that size and power are directly correlated.’⁴³ This, he believes, is an assumption which stems from the notion that a bigger union can hire more specialised staff and pool resources more effectively. He argues that growth often involves a disempowerment of the union at local factory level and a subsequent decrease in militancy. However, in the early and mid 1980s, growth for these unions was essential to their aim of building national industrial power to effect changes to metal workers’ conditions across South Africa. Numerical growth, and the power it represented, promoted further growth, and as numbers increased the influence of these unions spread and they grew further.

Organisational coherence also allowed these unions to better service membership, to accommodate high levels of workers’ control despite increased size, and to accumulate financial resources in order to develop their administrative and organisational capacity. The launch of Numsa was a symbol of this numerical power, internal cohesion, and worker solidarity, and the inauguration of Numsa was the culmination of these gains. As Dube expressed it at the launch, ‘the metal sector, the power that is at our disposal, the power that we have in our hands is not a small power, comrades.’⁴⁴

Despite overwhelming pressures, these unions were able to incorporate formerly racially exclusive and dissident unions. Their vision concentrated the numerical gains of all these unions into a single national industrial metal union. This was a deliberate strategy.

What unionists were less conscious of, however, was that paradoxically the racial stratification of the labour force eliminated major inter-union competition in the recruitment of members. As Martin points out, the South African union movement follows the Anglo-Celtic model where occupational categories provide the basis for trade union organisation.⁴⁵ As these were racially defined in South Africa and whites were mainly in skilled occupations, the established unions made little effort to organise black workers. This left the field open for the emerging unions to organise these workers – which contributed to the unions’ rapid growth.

The accumulation of power, however, cannot rest on increased numbers alone. For organisations to grow and maintain membership, a degree of success and of delivery is essential. Workers flocked to these unions because they witnessed the increased wages, the improved conditions and the growing control over their working lives – personal as much as material gains, as black workers’ dignity was enhanced with the sense that their humanity was at last being recognised.