The economy Trade Unions

Warm greetings to all Grade 11B. Welcome to the economics class. Today, we will focus on trade unions, you guys have touched on trade unions previous grades. But will go trough to recap on  what is meant trade unions.

Trade Unions

is an organization of workers who have come together to achieve many common goals, such as protecting the integrity  of their trade, improving safety standards, and attaining better wages, benefits (such as vacation, health care, and retirement), and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by solidarity among workers. Trade unions are directed towards protecting the rights of the employees. Problems may occur from time to time in any working environment. When this happens, the employee needs someone to protect his interests or present his case. Trade unions provide their members with legal advice, as well as someone who can present the member’s case, act on behalf of all employees and has the support of the national committee.

These are one of the South  African unions

Concept of trade unions; brief historical development of trade unions; the roles and responsibilities of trade unions in South Africa; effect of trade unions in businesses; contribution of trade unions to sustainable growth and development:

What can the employee expect from his trade union?

To engage in negotiations with the employer with regard to remuneration, work hours, holidays, the method of payment, allowances, overtime pay and retirement and pension benefits.

To represent the employee during negotiations when serious problems develop at work, e.g. when the employee claims to have been treated or disciplined unfairly, or that his complaints have not received due consideration.

To negotiate improved working conditions, e.g. when the employee is exposed to health and safety risks such as harmful gases, dangerous machinery, or even inadequate toilet facilities.

To negotiate protection for the employee when there is a threat of dismissal or redundancy.

To assist in matters related to unemployment insurance.

To ensure that part-time employees are treated fairly.  As a member of the trade union, the employee is also entitled to other benefits, such as legal advice and legal representation, certain cash benefits and other services, as well as the opportunity to attend trade union training courses.

Trade union organisations are divided into four types:

Trade unions for GENERAL WORKERS, representing all kinds of employees across a wide front, both skilled and unskilled, e.g. the Transport and General Workers Union.

Trade unions for TRADESMEN, representing employees with particular skills such as cabinet-makers, etc.  

Trade unions for INDUSTRIAL WORKERS, representing skilled and unskilled workers in a particular industry, e.g. employees in the paper- and pulp-manufacturing industry.

Trade unions for WHITE-COLLAR WORKERS, representing employees who are not involved in manual-skills occupations, e.g. teachers.

A brief historical development of trade unions

The trade union movement started in the 1700’s during the Industrial Revolution. It started in response to poor remuneration, bad working conditions and child labour. In other parts of the world they are called labour unions and was started in the mid 1800’s in the USA and Canada.

In South Africa the first trade union were formed in the diamond mining industry in the 1880’s.

In the 1930’s numerous trade unions combined into one non-racial South African Trades and Labour Council (SATLC). The council was however disbanded after the National Party took over in South Africa and banned many of the black workers’ unions. By the 1970’s and 1980’s workers became more organised and more united and many new unions were established. The following unions were formed:

National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) in 1982

The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) in 1987

The South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) in 1989

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in 2000

During the apartheid era from 1948 to 1984, trade unions played an important role in the economic and political struggle. In 1985 many trade unions joined together to form the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Cosatu joined the United Democratic Front (UDF) and together they were part of the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM). The MDM was a huge alliance of groups opposed to apartheid.

In 1992, three million workers joined a srike action in support of peace and democracy – it was the biggest strike action ever in South Africa.

Before the 1994 elections, Cosatu formed the Tripartite alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).

Labour disputes and wage negotiations continue to occur in South Africa, so there is still a need for trade unions to ensure economic conditions for their members are protected.

Over three million working people are members of trade unions.  There are now three big movements in South Africa namely COSATU, NUMSA and SATWU.

Role:

The main role is to protect workers’ rights.

To organise workers in a particular industry in a single bargaining unit. 

To serve as a force to the bargaining power of employers.

To embark on industrial actions after collective bargaining and mediation or arbitration fail over labour disputes.

To promote changes to government policies that affect workers – policy issues such as minimum wages, retirement age and the maximum working hours.

To be able to carry out their function in the work place i.e. to visit members in their work places to recruit and to inspect working conditions.

To ensure safety of their members in the work place through safety regulations which employers must follow.

Responsibilities:

To look after their members’ interest

To gain control over labour supply

To ensure skills development for their members takes place in the work place.

To ensure no discrimination against their members occurs in the work place.

To maintain good relations with employers and workers

To give workers good advice

To negotiate with employers in a peaceful manner and not to cause disruption to production

To help businesses grow and to create more jobs

Consider the rights of communities where workers live

Effect of trade unions on businesses

Trade unions can have both positive and negative effects on businesses.

Owners of businesses don’t trust trade unions much and most are opposed to them thinking their activities will affect their profits due to wage increases and improving working conditions of workers.

But it has shown that workers are more productive in a good and safe working environment and they feel that they are rewarded for their high productivity/ work. (Increased productivity lead to increased profits)

 Sometimes the actions of trade unions can affect workers when:

They demand a very high wage increase, then owners are forced to reduce the number of workers to compensate for the increase in wages. This could lead to unemployment or during a recession (when the demand for products decreases, profits decline and businesses struggle to increase or pay wages) lead to retrenchments.

Actions of trade unions have also improved the way businesses are managed in a more open and democratic way with workers having much more influence on how the every day tasks should be performed. Owners are now more willing to to listen to workers’ grievances and to negotiate with them.

Strikes, wildcat strikes and go-slows are often very costly for businesses and even the workers. When production is disrupted through actions of workers this could cause huge losses for the business because:

• Raw materials used in the production process and unfinished goods may spoil while the strike is on and have to be destroyed

• Buyers may go to other businesses to purchase products because they cant wait for the strike to be over and production continues

Strikes can also cause losses for the workers because:

• They will lose their pay for the time that they are on strike because of the ‘no work no pay’ principle. (E.g. like the situation in Marikana in the Rustenburg before the wage negotiations ended)

• If the striking workers are dismissed they could lose their jobs altogether.

Once the strike is over and no proper mediation occurred, bad feelings between employers and workers could remain. This could affect teamwork, productivity and profitability.

Activity 1

The history and role of trade unions

Do research and write a paragraph on each of the following topics (three paragraphs in total):

a) What is a trade union?

b) When and why were trade unions first formed?

c) What are the main functions of trade unions?

Refer to the teacher assessment rubric to see how your work will be assessed.

Activity 2:

Trade unions in South Africa

Answer the questions below in your workbook.

a) Briefly describe the history of the trade union movement in South Africa.            [5 marks]

b) Study the list of some of the trade unions in South Africa in Column A and match them with their acronyms.     

activity 1 (solutions)

activity 2 (solutions)

Teacher: Class activities are marked by peers, corrected, signed and dated. Notes given by teacher are checked and teacher comments in the learners’ books.

Project and Controlled test marked by teacher, moderated by HOD, recorded and analysed.

Learners: Class activities are completed by the learners in their exercise books and work is marked by peers or themselves.

Project and Controlled test completed by learners, marked by teacher and placed at the back of their books.

Via-Afrika-Economics-Grade-11-Study-guide.pdf

Name: Lelethu

Surname: Yawa

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