UNPACKING NUMSA'S RESPONSES TO TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES AT THE ARCELORMITTAL VANDERBIJLPARK PLANT

ABSTRACT

This article examines responses of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) to production technology changes from 1989 to 2012 in a steel plant called ArcelorMittal in the town of Vanderbijlpark in the south of Gauteng. Trade union responses to technological changes at the workplace is a topic that tends to be ignored by scholars of labour studies in a South African context. South African labour research seems to be following union practice, which entails focusing on wages, union history, organisational structures of trade unions, and ‘palace politics’, thereby neglecting technology and production. Based on in-depth interviews, factory visits and documentary evidence, the article submits that NUMSA was partly unable to respond effectively to technological changes at the plant because it adopted an inadequate approach, which involved responding to technological changes when such changes were in advanced stages of implementation.

Key words:

• comprehensive approach
• inadequate approach
• technology
• wages

Additional information

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

MONDLI HLATSHWAYO is a Researcher at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg. His research interests include labour process, workers’ education, community education, social movements, xenophobia and racism.