Beyond traditional trade unionism: innovative worker responses in three African cities

ABSTRACT

Insufficient attention has been given to how workers organizations are challenging precarious work through new hybrid forms of organizing in the Global South. In this article we examine three examples where workers innovate and experiment with new forms of worker organization in three African cities. These include a traditional union reaching out to precarious workers in Cape Town, hybrid forms of worker organizations in Kampala, and workers in the gig economy starting a process of self-organization in Johannesburg. We argue that there is manifold experimentation taking place on the periphery of the labour movement and that the forms of organizations often differ from traditional unionism. Our comparisons reveal that if current trade union organizations are to meet the needs of informal workers and the new workers of the digital economy they will need to transform, rediscover their power and the capabilities necessary to realize this power.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal work
• union revitalization
• hybrid organization
• gig economy

Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors of the Special Issue for their guidance and excellent support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We define precarious work as an economic activity in which income is low and irregular, it is insecure both in terms of its continuity and safety, it lacks benefits or any form of social protection and the workers have no voice or forms of representation. It is best understood as the opposite of the what the ILO defines as decent work.

2 The City of Cape Town’s designation schedule for EPWP workers prescribed a daily wage of R80 for a general worker, R100 for a worker in solid waste, and R110 for a worker leader (CoCT, 2012a), which amounted to a monthly income of a general worker in solid waste of about R2000 per month. This was even above the minimum wage of R66,34 as set out in the Ministerial Determination at the time.

3 EPWP workers receive R11 per hour and 55 per cent of the national minimum.

4 At the Klipfontein depot, for instance, EPWP workers who attended a protected strike in 2015 were issued with written warnings by the depot manager not to take part in further strikes.

5 Report of the Action Team Re SAMWU Strike Issues – as at 13 May 2015, author’s collection.

6 A Ugandan migrant worker who has been working as food delivery driver for 14 years, and is considered the local leader, as he has worked for most of the food delivery companies.

7 A Ugandan migrant worker who has been working as a food delivery driver in Johannesburg for 2 years. He is the main WhatsApp solidarity group coordinator.

8 A Zimbabwean migrant worker who has been working for Takealot.com and Mr Delivery food and goods delivery driver for a year.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Edward Webster

Edward Webster is Distinguished Research Professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) and research associate and founder and past director of the Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP) at Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg.

Carmen Ludwig

Carmen Ludwig is a postdoctoral researcher based in Germany and an international research associate at SWOP, Witwatersrand University. She works as a trade union secretary on international labour issues.

Fikile Masikane

Fikile Masikane is a PhD candidate in Industrial Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is Professor Edward Webster’s Research Assistant on the Future of Work Project at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies.

Dave Spooner

Dave Spooner is the Director of the Global Labour Institute in Manchester UK, working closely with the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and its affiliates in support of the organization and representation of informal transport workers.