Union membership figures (compiled/claimed)¶


Kind	union or movement records
Producer	Various unions and compilers
Coverage	1926-1990s
Works using it	5

Project holdings¶

The project holds this source in part. See Other Datasets.

Debate	Works
Black trade unions: growth, wage effects, Wiehahn and strategy	4
Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves	1
The job colour bar, white labour and its erosion	1
Did the apartheid economy fail? Growth, productivity, investment and the post-1970s crisis	1
Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?	1
The state and capital: instrumentalism, autonomy and fractions of capital	1
Racial wage gaps, wage convergence and wage determination	1

Work	As cited	Period	How used
De Clercq (1979)	African trade union membership figures (CNETU 1945, 1950, 1961, 1969, 1976)	c.1945-1976	Establishes the boom-and-bust pattern of African unionisation linked to waves of militancy and repression.
De Clercq (1979)	Union membership counts for 1976-79 federations (TUCSA-affiliated African unions, SABLATU, FOSATU, Cape unions)	1976-1979	Maps the post-Wiehahn division of the organised labour movement.
Hofmeyr and Lucas (1998)	Union-reported membership figures	1980s-1990s	Used to assert that African union membership grew rapidly and that unionization of wage employees is among the highest in developing countries.
Innes and Plaut (1978)	ICU membership figure of 100,000 in 1926-27 (source unspecified)	1926-27	Illustrates the growth of the ICU as an African labour organisation.
Moll (1993c)	Union membership figures (claimed by unions), 1979 and 1985	1979-1985	Documents growth of union membership from 760,000 to 1.8 million and split between registered and unregistered unions.
Webster (1984)	Union membership and shop steward data for emerging unions (400,000 signed-up; 756 workplaces; 420 agreements; 6,000 shop stewards)	c. 1983-84	Describes the scale of the emerging unions and the workplace-based organisation of shop steward structures.