Trade Unions: Monopoly Power and Poverty in Natal's Industries¶
Ari Sitas; John Stanwix; Cathi Shaw (1984). Trade Unions: Monopoly Power and Poverty in Natal's Industries. Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa, Conference Paper No. 108. Cape Town: Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU), Second Carnegie Inquiry.
| Type | conference paper |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | mixed |
| Period studied | 1850s–1984 |
| Regions | Natal, Durban/Pinetown, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu, Witwatersrand (comparison) |
| Themes | labour markets wages, unions strikes, inequality poverty unemployment, manufacturing industrial policy, business and state, bantustans removals influx, origins segregation, mining migrant labour |
| Citation key | sitas1984 |
Argument¶
The paper rejects mechanistic accounts in which poverty alleviation is a natural outcome of capital accumulation. It argues that poverty among black workers was a necessary condition of Natal's uneven industrialisation, which rested on cheap, captive labour: migrancy, influx control, and state repression of organisation. From the 1960s, concentration and centralisation of capital, mining-house diversification, state policy and the IDC, foreign capital and technology, and the collapse of the reserve subsistence economy undermined the cheap labour system and made capital intensive firms dependent on stable workforces. Black unions since 1973 have won real gains (living wage demands, recognition, retrenchment procedures, shop-floor power), but workers remain poor and monopoly capital's structure produces structural unemployment, so there is no systemic solution within it.
Evidence and method¶
Official statistics (censuses, Department of Statistics, Reserve Bank), Wage Board and Department of Labour reports, earlier University of Natal surveys, and secondary and thesis literature. Original fieldwork: a survey of 14 large Durban-area manufacturers (each over 1 000 employees, together 28 000 workers) covering 1974-78 and 1979-83, interviews with managements, trade unionists and workers, and case-history vignettes. Also union reports (FOSATU), press, and Who Owns Whom for company linkages.
Place in the debates¶
- Poverty alleviation as a natural outcome of capital accumulation (modernisation and stages theory) vs poverty as functional to accumulation and relief as the product of class struggle (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Firmly the latter. Rejects Rostow-type stages, modernisation and the 'affluent worker' thesis; high living standards result from pressure from below and class conflict.
- Cheap labour thesis (see Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves). Cheap labour, sustained by migrancy and the reserve subsistence subsidy, underpinned Natal's industrialisation. After the war it was eroded by reserve debilitation, relocation and mechanisation, though it persists in decentralised areas and in clothing and textiles.
- Liberal vs radical views of state and capital (free-market 'invisible hand' vs state-facilitated capitalism) (see The state and capital: instrumentalism, autonomy and fractions of capital). Radical: the state created the conditions for capitalism through racial labour controls, and state corporations, tariffs and the IDC promoted concentration. The liberal free-market invisible hand is contested.
- Unions as a labour aristocracy blocking employment for the unemployed (see Unemployment: causes, measurement and labour market institutions). Rejects the view that unions and the state together block capital's job creation. Argues that organised labour's class interest lies in full employment, while acknowledging real tensions between the employed and the unemployed.
- Causes of the 1973 Durban strikes and of rising worker power (see Worker consciousness, strikes and conflict on the mines and shop floor). Attributes them to the breakdown of cheap labour, urbanisation, inflation eroding real wages, and capital concentration with greater employment stability and a collective consciousness.
Findings¶
-
Between 1960 and 1980 manufacturing employment growth fell sharply relative to output growth, producing structural unemployment. (p. 26)
Between 1960 and 1970 employment in manufacturing grew at 5,64 per cent per annum while over the same period the physical volume of manufacturing output had grown at 8,51 per cent per annum.
-
Decentralisation incentives let cheap labour persist in border and decentralised areas such as Natal's, while elsewhere capital mechanised. (p. 21)
Substantial incentives were attached to the location of industries in decentralised areas. They included wage subsidies, interest subsidies, rail rebates and exemption from the provisions of industrial council agreements.
-
In the 1974-78 downswing, the surveyed firms laid off about 8 000 workers (31%), and rationalisation followed the downswing. (p. 28)
Our estimate of the number of people retrenched or laid-off is 8 000 workers (31%) which is very high; according to our assessment 2 000 of these workers were reemployed by 1978
-
Trade union gains arose from pressure from below, not the natural logic of accumulation. (p. 45)
To ascribe this struggle to a natural unfolding of the logic of capital accumulation alone, would be to confuse origins with causes.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census Report 02.80.03 (1980 Population Census), Central Statistical Services | population census | 1980 | Establishes that 24.4 percent of Natal's workers were employed in manufacturing and construction. |
| Department of Statistics, Manufacturing Census 1976, Report No. 10.21.33 | industrial mining census | 1976 | Gives geographic concentration of manufacturing employment and sectoral employment shares in Natal. |
| Department of Statistics, Gross Geographic Product at Factor Incomes by Magisterial District, 1975, Table 2 | official statistical series | 1975 | Cited for Natal becoming the second major industrial complex in South Africa by the 1970s. |
| J. Stanwix, 'A Study of the Natal Regional Economy' for the Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission, 1983 | secondary literature compilation | 1983 (historical coverage) | Source for the structure of Natal industry and, with Who Owns Whom, for ownership linkages by sector. |
| M. Katzen, Industry in Greater Durban (Natal Town & Regional Planning Reports, Vol. 3, 1951 and Report No. 3, 1961) | secondary literature compilation | 1920s-1950s | Supplies the data for early manufacturing, the racial composition of wage earners (Table I), and the wage series (Table II), plus periodization. |
| Report of the Department of Labour, U.G. 11/1936 | commission or official report | 1936 | Cited for the 1934 Wage Board investigation of the garment trades and Durban piecework competition. |
| Wage Board Investigations of 1926 and 1934 into the Natal clothing/garment trades | commission or official report | 1926, 1934 | Documents bad conditions, low wages and piecework in the Durban clothing industry. |
| Natal Regional Survey: The African Factory Worker (University of Natal, 1946 study; published 1950) | author survey or fieldwork | 1946 | Shows Dunlop's best-paid African workers suffered malnutrition, low wages and poor housing. |
| Natal Mercury, 28/4/1859 and 22/11/1860 | newspapers periodicals | 1859-1860 | Quoted for the colonial justification for importing indentured Indian labour. |
| Y.S. Meer et al (eds), Documents of Indentured Labour, Durban, 1976 (incl. Wragg Commission material) | commission or official report | 1860-1911 | Used for indentured labour conditions and the Wragg Commission episode (John James). |
| A.W.G. Champion's evidence on the Beer Riots (1929) and writings | commission or official report | 1929 | Evidence on low wages of African workers in Durban around 1929 (£1-£2 a week). |
| South African Reserve Bank, Statistical presentation of South Africa's National Accounts 1946-1970, Table 15 | national accounts macro | 1946-1970 | Supports the claim that post-war industrial growth was financed mainly by domestic savings. |
| South African Reserve Bank, Quarterly Bulletin, June 1973 | international trade or finance data | 1967-1972 | Evidence for the foreign capital inflow of 1967-1972. |
| South African Statistics 1982, Tables 7.5 and 12.50 | official statistical series | 1960-1980 | Source for manufacturing employment and output growth rates by period. |
| G. McGregor, Who Owns Whom (1980) and Stanwix | company records or reports | 1980 | Source for the corporate ownership linkages of Natal's major firms by sector. |
| Author survey of 14 major Durban manufacturers, 1974-78 and 1979-83 (C. Shaw, semi-structured questionnaire) | author survey or fieldwork | 1974-1983 | Establishes patterns of retrenchment, rationalisation, takeovers, short-time and managerial attitudes in the downswings. |
| Interviews with veteran trade unionists, union officials and employers (e.g. H. Bolton, A. Temba, MAWU General Secretary, Khumalo, Khanyile, firm respondents F2, M2, M3, C2) | interviews oral history | 1983-1984 | Supports claims on cheap labour history, union impact, retrenchment bargaining, and employer attitudes. |
| CLRRG (Community and Labour Relations Research Group, University of Natal) interviews, discussion papers and Trade Union Research Project | interviews oral history | 1983-1984 | Source of worker case-study biographies (J.S., H., F., J., G.) and poverty-line calculations. |
| UPE (University of Port Elizabeth) subsistence/poverty datum line reports, December 1983 | official statistical series | 1983 | Provides current household subsistence minima (R236.65 to R370 per month) used as the poverty benchmark. |
| Black Women in Industry 1983: 988 Interviews, preliminary report (F. Meer et al., IBR and CLRRG) | household or labour survey microdata | 1983 | Evidence that up to 80% of women workers earn below the subsistence minimum. |
| FOSATU Annual Reports 1982/83, FOSATU Worker News, SASPU National/Focus, trade union and strike reports | union or movement records | 1982-1984 | Source for union membership growth, strikes, retrenchment demands and campaigns. |
| Financial Mail, Financial Week, Star, Zululand Observer and related press (1975-1983) | newspapers periodicals | 1975-1983 | Used to construct union coverage estimates, wage minima and firm/industry developments. |
| Mastoroudes, Estimates of Migrants and Commuters, Unit for Futures Research, Stellenbosch, 1982 | secondary literature compilation | 1982 | Source for the estimate of 150,000 contract workers in Natal. |
| SAIRR Survey of Race Relations 1981-1983 | official statistical series | 1981-1983 | Cited on divergent claimed membership figures for SAAWU. |
| IIE, Durban Strikes (1974) | secondary literature compilation | 1973 | Source for the 1973 Durban strikes and the share of African workers below the subsistence level. |
New data¶
Authors' survey (C. Shaw) of 14 major Durban manufacturers, each with over 1,000 employees and about 28,000 workers in total, covering 1974-78 and 1979-83. Plus a union-presence enumeration of Natal firms with over 1,000 employees and interview-based worker case studies. All are small and largely qualitative.
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Historical-structural argument within a Marxist framework. It combines secondary historical literature, period tables of wages and employment, a small purposive firm survey with yes/no coded management responses, union and press reports, and illustrative worker case studies. Claims are supported by narrative and by comparison across periods and sectors. There is no regression or controlled testing.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Natal's industrialisation rested on cheap African and Indian labour, with real wages low and falling after 1947/8 in Durban/Pinetown. (p. 9) | Katzen-derived Tables I and II (wages at constant 1937/8 prices), Wage Board reports, Natal University surveys. | Partial data |
| Post-war capital concentration and centralisation in manufacturing, driven by mining capital, state policy (IDC, tariffs) and foreign investment, subordinated Natal firms to Witwatersrand and foreign conglomerates. (p. 24) | Ownership listings from Who Owns Whom and Stanwix, plus secondary literature. The authors concede quantitative measurement of monopoly control in Natal was impossible. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| In the 1974-78 downswing, firms retrenched about 8,000 workers (31%) and rationalised afterwards. In the 1980s downswing, rationalisation caused the job losses (16% of the sample's workers). (p. 28) | Author survey of 14 large firms, with yes/no response tables and interview comments. | Partial data |
| Independent unions have shifted power in Natal industry: they affected wage structures, recognition, retrenchment procedures and shop-floor discipline. (p. 43) | Employer and union interviews, FOSATU reports, press, and cases such as the MAWU Metal Industrial Council negotiations. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Black workers in Natal remain poor: most fall below subsistence minima, especially young workers, women, workers outside metropolitan areas and migrants. (p. 50) | UPE-derived subsistence minima, the Black Women in Industry survey (up to 80% of women below the minimum), union-reported wage rates and individual worker case narratives. | Partial data |
| Roughly 80% of Natal firms with over 1,000 employees have a union presence, about 45% with progressive unions and 35% with TUCSA unions. (p. 36) | The authors' own enumeration from the Manufacturing Census 1975, Financial Mail and union reports. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
The authors say there is rich historical material but their treatment will be brief. Monopoly control cannot be measured at a disaggregated level for Natal because shareholdings are confidential. The survey table is meant only as an index for qualitative assessment. They do not know whether re-employed workers were the same ones laid off. Union membership figures are 'claimed' and incompatible. The research on youth unemployment needs more work.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument needs systematic wage and employment series for Natal after 1953 and a representative worker or firm survey, rather than 14 large firms and hand-picked biographies. It also needs firm-level ownership data (company registry and share records) and union membership audits. Some of this existed then: the Manufacturing Census returns, Wage Board and Industrial Council agreements, and the unions' own records. Cohort evidence on youth unemployment and household budgets is mostly later survey material.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.