Unions losing public’s trust
Many have less confidence in them: survey
SOUTH Africans are losing faith in trade unions, according to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), which has said in a new study that the growth of “active distrust” should be a cause for concern for the labour movement.
The council looked at the public’s trust in unions and other bodies over the past two years.
During the wildcat strikes in the mining sector last year, many workers voiced their dissatisfaction with their trade union leaders, accusing them of being too close to management and too willing to compromise on workers’ demands, said an HSRC report by Steven Gordhan of the council’s Democracy, Governance and Service Delivery Programme and South African Social Attitudes Survey co-ordinators, Benjamin Roberts and Jaré Struwig.
They also said the violent strike action by farmworkers in the Western Cape was also seen to bypass trade union structures.
Cosatu is not concerned by the survey and said it was addressing the challenges it was facing.
The Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) said it was not surprised by the council’s finding and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) felt this could be owing to some unions having strong political affiliations, instead of being independent.
The authors of the report measured whether there had been a decline in public confidence in trade unions by analysing 2011 and 2012 data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey.
Nationally, representative samples – 3 057 in 2011 and 2 520 last year – of the country’s adult population were surveyed in November/December of each year and people were asked to indicate whether they trusted or distrusted 13 South African institutions. These included the national and local government, churches or religious organisations, the SABC and trade unions.
The survey found that people had great confidence in religious institutions, but there was a lower level of trust in other institutions, such as traditional leaders, local government, politicians and trade unions. Trade unions showed a significant fall in confidence.
In 2011, 43 percent of South Africans surveyed said they trusted trade unions, but last year, this dropped to 29 percent – with 40 percent reporting they distrusted unions and 31 percent remaining neutral.
Distrust
The authors felt racial differences existed when analysing trust in unions and found that distrust had grown from 21 percent to 35 percent among black Africans and to 53 percent among coloureds.
The survey was also broken down into class and age groups. South Africans were asked whether they identified themselves with the lower, working, middle or upper class.
The report said previous SA Social Attitudes Survey studies had found that such subjective class scales largely aligned with other indicators of economic status, such as income and education.
“Worryingly, there are clear indications that distrust among the lower class has expanded significantly, from 22 percent in 2011 to 40 percent in 2012, as well as among the working class, with distrust increasing from 21 percent in 2011 to 37 percent in 2012,” the report said.
“The youth are not less trusting of the trade union movement than other South Africans. Those aged 16 to 24 years, in fact, displayed slightly more trust on average than those who were 50 years and older,” the report stated.
“In addition, although the trade union movement may have failed to bring significant numbers of contract and parttime workers inside trade union organisations, these groups compared favourably with full-time workers in terms of trust.”
While all age groups experienced a decline of trust, the report found that it was particularly the case with older South Africans and those in full-time employment.
“Given that building a working-class consciousness was one of the central themes of the South African trade union movement, the growth of active distrust among these groups should be a cause of deep concern for the labour movement,” the authors said.
Fedusa general secretary, Dennis George, said the South African public did not understand the role of trade unions and that opinions were based on what people saw on television – the violent protests.
“So we’re not surprised by their distrust.” he said. “People must look at the value add of trade unions and democracy. I think trade unions should also do more to improve their communication with people.
“Trade unions are here for the more vulnerable people in society,” George said.
Nactu’s national spokesman, Mangaliso Jo Ndlela, said some people preferred to be affiliated to unions that were independent as people had different political preferences.
Solidarity
“When people join unions, they know they have solidarity, but they don’t want to be forced to join or share political opinion with the union,” Ndlela said.
He added that there could also be distrust due to some “union bosses” who believe their union could be used for enriching themselves while the workers are forgotten.
Cosatu national spokesman, Patrick Craven, said Cosatu had commissioned a study to survey the attitudes of its members towards Cosatu affiliates. The outcome, he said, showed that they have a lot to do to improve service to its members.
Craven said the union was dealing with the challenges it was facing and was not concerned about the survey.
“While members have raised problems about service, we have not seen a drop in the membership of unions. Instead, Cosatu has continued to grow, bucking a trend internationally, where unions have declined, particularly after the 2008 economic crisis,” he said.
Craven added that the survey was conducted immediately after the Marikana tragedy, which “created not only confusion but a state of uncertainty”.
“Sometimes disgruntled workers do leave one union to join another and sometimes return to their original union. This is an indication that workers want unions to serve their interests more and they understand that their strengths lie in their being in organisations of their own choice,” Craven said.