‘AMCU by day, workers’ committee by night’: Insurgent Trade Unionism at Anglo Platinum (Amplats) mine, 2012–2014

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between the workers’ committee, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at Amplats between 2012 and 2014. Drawing from in-depth interviews with worker leaders, it explores the contestation over representation and recognition in the platinum mines during a time when workers waged historic strikes putting forward radical demands for pay increases. There has been a rocky transition (one that is incomplete) from the values and culture of the workers’ committee at Amplats to that of the union – AMCU. Gouldner's critique of Michels’ classic ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy’ provides a useful starting point from which to understand this transition as well as the contemporary mineworkers’ movement in South Africa more generally. Gouldner suggested that Michels ignored democratic impulses thereby putting forth a model which was monolithic and static rather than socially constructed and contextually specific. The article advances the concept of Insurgent Trade Unionism in order to argue that when the rank and file takes on an insurgent character, the trade union's bureaucratic or official power (at the national, regional and branch level) becomes marginal, but only relatively so in this case, as the events reveal.

[AMCU le jour, comité de travailleurs la nuit : le syndicalisme insurgé à la mine d’Anglo Platinum (Amplats), 2012-2014.] Cet article examine les relations entre le comité des travailleurs, l’Association nationale des mineurs (NUM) et l’Association syndicale des mineurs et des travailleurs du secteur de la construction (AMCU) à Amplats entre 2012 et 2014. Sur la base d’entretiens poussés avec des représentants des travailleurs, l’article explore la contestation de la représentation et de la reconnaissance dans les mines de platine pendant une période où les travailleurs ont réalisé des grèves historiques qui ont mis en avant des demandes radicales pour des augmentations salariales. Il s’est produit une transition difficile (et incomplète) entre les valeurs et la culture du comité de travailleurs à Amplats à celles du syndicat - AMCU. La critique de Gouldner (1955) de la « Loi de fer de l’oligarchie » de Michel est un bon point de départ pour comprendre cette transition ainsi que plus généralement le mouvement contemporain des mineurs en Afrique du Sud. Gouldner suppose que Michel ignorait les impulsions démocratiques, mettant en avant de cette manière un modèle qui était monolithique et statique plutôt que construit socialement et spécifique au contexte. L’article propose le concept de syndicalisme insurgé afin de justifier que lorsque la base prend un caractère insurgé, le pouvoir syndical bureaucratique ou officiel (au niveau national, régional et de la branche) devient marginal, mais seulement de manière relative dans ce cas, comme les événements le montrent.

Keywords:

• Insurgent Trade Unionism
• workers’ committees
• unprotected strikes
• Rustenburg platinum belt
• Marikana
• Anglo Platinum

Mots-clés:

• syndicalisme insurgé
• comités de travailleurs
• ceinture de platine de Rustenburg
• Marikana
• Anglo Platinum

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the South African Research Chair in Social Change at the University of Johannesburg and the HIVOS Foundation for their support of the research project which led to this article.

Note on contributor

Luke Sinwell obtained his PhD in Development Studies at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2009. He has published over 10 peer-reviewed journal articles and is co-editor of Contesting Transformation: Popular Resistance in 21st Century South Africa (Pluto Press, 2012) and a co-author of Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer (Jacana Media, 2012 and Ohio University Press, 2013). His current research is on independent strike committees in the Rustenburg platinum belt, which contains the three largest platinum mines in the world.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Anglo Platinum (abbreviated as Amplats) is the largest platinum mining corporation in the world. Its Rustenburg section is located on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex, alongside the major operations of the two other platinum giants, Impala and Lonmin. Rustenburg is located approximately 120 kilometres from Johannesburg.

2. Each interviewee in this article has been listed as ‘anonymous' or as ‘mineworker.’ Where identifying the quote with a specific individual has been appropriate, workers have been given a pseudonym in order to protect them. In cases where mineworkers were provided with pseudonyms, I have given the date in an endnote which explains when the interview was conducted. The interviews were conducted by myself and/or Siphiwe Mbatha in 2013 and 2014 in the Rustenburg platinum belt while we were working on a forthcoming (2016) book under contract with Pluto Press provisionally called The spirit of Marikana: the rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa. The interviews were conducted in and around the Rustenburg region. The quotes are drawn from a database of recordings which we collected and transcribed. It now consists of several hundred pages.

3. The right to engage in strike action is enshrined in the South African Bill of Rights and, as such, there are no ‘illegal’ strikes. However, the Labour Relations Act (66 of 1995) draws a distinction between ‘protected’ strikes, which comply with its provisions, and ‘unprotected’ strikes, which do not. Workers engaging in protected strikes cannot be dismissed nor can civil legal proceedings be brought against them, whereas an unprotected (or ‘wildcat’) strike can constitute a fair reason for dismissal. Despite this, the 2012 strikes were uniformly portrayed as ‘illegal’ in media, political and union circles, primarily because they developed outside and against the formal structures of the NUM.

4. For a thorough and critical assessment of the impact of the transition to democracy on the NUM, see Beresford (2012).

5. See Dunbar Moodie's article in this issue.

6. For an insightful explanation of management's role in the 1986 mineworkers strike, see Moodie (2009).

7. On this, see the contributions of Benya and of Bezuidenhout and Buhlungu in this issue.

8. It should be added here that a close reading of this and other Marxist scholarship suggests some similarities to Gouldner (1955). In Cliff and Gluckstein (1986), the trade union bureaucracy is conceived as occupying a contradictory position between capital and labour, which tends to result in conservatism and inertia, but, under pressure from below, can also lead to more combative trade union activity. In this reading, the democratic impulse in unions is thus to be found at its base, and points to the strategic importance of developing independent rank-and-file organisation and initiative within unions, which can force officials to take action and hold them to account.

9. All the below quotes from Solomon are drawn from interviews with him on either 9 August 2013 or 4 May 2014.

10. All the below quotes from Sipho are drawn from an interview with him on 17 August 2013.

11. CCMA is an independent labour dispute resolution body which was created under the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Act No. 66 of 1995).

12. It is beyond the scope of this article to provide a description of the strike itself.

13. This quote from Anele was drawn from an interview with him on 8 June 2013.