New Labour Formations Organising Outside of Trade Unions, CWAO And
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Wits Institutional Repository on DSPACE Research Report for the degree of Master of Arts in Industrial Sociology, submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Nkosinathi Godfrey Zuma Supervisor: Prof. Bridget C. Kenny Title: ‘Contingent organisation’ on the East Rand: New labour formations organising outside of trade unions, CWAO and the workers’ Solidarity Committee. Wits, Johannesburg, 2015 1 COPYRIGHT NOTICE The copyright of this research report rests with the University of the Witwaterand, Johannesburg, which it was submitted, in accordance with the University’s Intellectual Property Rights Procedures. No portion of this report may be produced or published without prior written authorization from the aurthor or the University. Extract of or qoutations from this research report may be included provided full acknowledgement of the aurthor and the University and in line with the University’s Intellectual Property Procedures. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My utmost appreciation goes to my supervisor Prof. Bridget Kenny for her endless intellectual guiedance and encouragement throughout this research report. It has been a great incalculable experience learning and be montored by Prof. Kenny. Without your support the complition of this report would be more difficult. I highly appreciate the warm welcome and support given to me by the Advice office (CWAO) in Germiston. My special thanks go to Ighsaan Schroeder for your support and permitting me access to your office. Thank you for the interviews you afforded me. Secondly, my special thanks go to Thabang Mohlala for your support and willingness to help me organise the interviews. To all the members of the solidarity committee (SC) I greatly thank you for welcoming me and allowing me to observe your meetings and demostrations. Without your willingness to afford me the opportunity to observe your activities and the chance to interview you, I would have not been able to complete this research report. I thank the Wits Department of Sociology for assisting me with my 2015 registration upfront payment, highly appreciated. I thank my family and friends for the love, support, and encouragement you gave to me all the way through my academic journey, highly appreciated. To my precious siblings: Bonga, Siphesihle, Thobeka, and Nosipho this should be your springboard. 3 DECLARATION I Nkosinathi Zuma, student at the University of the Witwatersrand registered for Master of Arts, Industrial Sociology, in the year 2015. I hereby declare that the work submitted for this research report for the above mentioned course is my own unaided work apart from where I have openly indicated if not. I have followed the guidelines in referencing the ideas, views, and works of others. This research report is submitted partly for the accomplishment of the requirements of the above mentioned Master of Arts Degree. Signature: ______________________ Date: ____________________ 4 Table of Contents: COPYRIGHT NOTICE……………………………............................................................ 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………….. 3 DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………...……… 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………...………………………………………. 8 LIST OF TABLES...………………………………………………………………………. 11 CHAPTER’S OVERVIEW...……………………………………………………………... 15 Chapter One: Introduction and Chapter’s overview ......................................................... 12 Introduction: ......................................................................................................................... 12 Chapter’s overview: ............................................................................................................. 15 Chapter Two: Literature Review ......................................................................................... 17 Brief history of the East Rand: ............................................................................................. 17 Restructuring on the global scale: ........................................................................................ 17 Intensifying precariousness: ............................................................................................. 21 Restructuring in South Africa: ............................................................................................. 23 Restructuring in the East Rand: ............................................................................................ 26 The South African context: .................................................................................................. 31 The changing composition of labour and the labour movement: ..................................... 32 Are the labour unions failing? .............................................................................................. 35 Labour union’s organisational form ..................................................................................... 37 Possibilities of Labour resistance: ........................................................................................ 43 Community unionism: .......................................................................................................... 44 Community unionism as an organisational model ............................................................... 45 Challenges of community unionism:.................................................................................... 47 Chapter Three: Research methodology and methods ........................................................ 49 Research strategy .................................................................................................................. 49 5 Ethnographic field methods: ................................................................................................ 49 Observation technique: ......................................................................................................... 49 Sampling technique: ............................................................................................................. 51 Research instruments: .......................................................................................................... 58 Limitations during fieldwork: .............................................................................................. 58 Ethical issues in Research: ................................................................................................... 58 Chapter Four: Restructuring of work and labour .............................................................. 60 What it means to be a precarious or casual worker .............................................................. 60 Definition of a casual worker—A complex phenomenon .................................................... 62 Casualization of labour and the resulting employment conditions: ..................................... 64 Working hours .................................................................................................................. 66 Wages and benefits ........................................................................................................... 67 No promotion to permanent positions .............................................................................. 70 No sick leave for casuals .................................................................................................. 71 Ill-treatment of precarious workers .................................................................................. 72 Transferred precariousness ............................................................................................... 72 The impact of externalisation ............................................................................................... 75 Rural Recruitment: ............................................................................................................... 79 Factory and labour sharing ................................................................................................... 84 Employment of non-South African workers ........................................................................ 85 Workers collective identification taken beyond the workplace ........................................... 87 Chapter Four: Emerging Militancy: Formation of CWAO and SC ................................. 88 Restructuring has affected the labour movement: ................................................................ 88 Workers views and experiences with trade unions: ............................................................. 90 Relevance of labour unions .................................................................................................. 93 Outline of CWAO and the SC .............................................................................................. 97 The formation of CWAO: .................................................................................................... 97 6 How do the workers benefit from CWAO? ......................................................................... 98 Political education: ............................................................................................................. 100 How the workers view CWAO .......................................................................................... 102 The formation of the SC: .................................................................................................... 103 Other emerging