A strike around a specific employment issue can easily develop a momentum of its own and become a catalyst for a much wider expression of dissatisfaction.
The holiday began as a strike against excessive workweeks but now bears little resemblance to its worker-centric origins, even as the founders’ gains are slowly lost.
The membership base of South Africa’s trade union movement has undergone significant changes which begs the question: has it moved away from its working class roots to become a middle class movement.
There’s a raging debate in South Africa about the role of its central bank. This is inevitable given that so much is changing in the world of central banking and in economic life.
South Africa’s newest trade union federation, Saftu, comes at a time of declining political influence by unions, compared to during the struggle against apartheid. They are also seen as elitist.
The Prices and Incomes Accord was a series of agreements between Labor and the ACTU where unions would moderate their wage demands in exchange for improvements in the ‘social wage’.
A major shift to an industrial relations model that benefits all parties will only happen with the utmost co-operation of Australian workers, unions and – most crucially – employers.