Is it sunset or sunrise for unions in SA?

Faced with declining membership, inter-union rivalry and radical changes in the nature of work, trade unions need to question their relevance and revitalise themselves or face becoming irrelevant.

Trade unions played a key role in the struggle for democracy and worker rights in South Africa, but only 23% of the country’s economically active population now belong to a union, down from 34% in 2016.

With the younger, post-1994 generation of workers not convinced of the value of union membership, and older members losing trust in unions, Workers’ Day on May 1 is an apt time to consider how trade unions can ensure they remain relevant and adapt to the changing future of work.

It is a case of adapt or die.

South Africa’s 225 registered trade unions represent about three million workers, but changing employment contracts – including outsourcing, informalisation of jobs and remote working – have led to diminishing membership numbers. Trade unions are recruiting members from the same pool and losing members to rival unions in the same sector. They need to look beyond the existing pool of workers, and consider how to organise unorganised employees as well as looking to appeal to younger workers.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of the informal sector to the livelihoods of many South Africans – there is an organising opportunity there for trade unions.

Workers have lost trust in unions and their officials due to perceptions of “business trade unionism”, that union leaders were more concerned with enriching themselves than with their members’ daily workplace challenges.

The question that arises for ordinary workers is: why should they belong to a trade union and pay their subscriptions when they are failed by their union? Unions have become bureaucracies in which officials lack accountability to their members.

The relationship of trade unions with the governing party and the government since 1994 is now questioned by analysts and workers, asking whether unions can effectively represent and serve workers while in alliance with the country’s biggest employer.

There are two possible future scenarios facing trade unions – marginalisation, where unionisation continues to decline and ageing unions lose strength and credibility; or dualisation, with unions defending their positions, focusing on servicing workers in sectors where they remain strong, mainly workers in permanent employment in large industries and the public sector. It can be argued that trade unions are indispensable to a balanced economic environment but they need to find innovative ways to revitalise themselves or be pushed towards becoming irrelevant.