Organising labour broker workers: the case of Giwusa at AEL and Samwu in Tshwane

• Main Author: Rees, Robin Alexey
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/10910

M.A. Faculty of Humanties, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011. === In a context framed by neo-liberalism, employers increasingly employ labour broker workers. Trade unions find it broadly difficult to organise these workers. Giwusa, a general union and Samwu an industrial union have relative success in organising broker workers at a manufacturing plant and municipality respectively. The comparative study of these cases finds that organisational form is not a necessary condition for success and there are similarities between the cases including the workplace organising focus and the common class and cultural experiences of labour broker workers. This experience linked to their material conditions of work, provides a foundation for their willingness to organise. Crucially, the unions’ class politics explains the two different organisational approaches. In the Giwusa case permanent shop stewards drive organisation, supported by the union and based on the market bargaining power of broker workers. In the Samwu case broker workers themselves drive organising from below and challenge both their marginalisation in the union and at the workplace, through the exercise of associational power.