A sociological analysis of industrial action among blue-collar workers at South African universities with reference to two campuses in the Free State

[摘要] English: In recent years, the South African university sector has come to be characterisedby trade union and student backlash. The roots of the crises lie in the need totransform this sector. The acceptability and effectiveness of tertiary educationinstitution rest fundamentally on visible institutional change that parallels thechange the country is currently undergoing. One of the flashpoints in thetransformation process in this sector has been a wave of industrial action by theblue-collar workers amidst the arbitrary and often paternalistic authority of almostan all white management in virtually all the university campuses nationally.The 2nd of February 1990, however, brought into the scene the whole array ofchanges that overhauled the draconian-type social policy of the apartheidregime. The constitutional talks in the Convention for Democratic South Africa(CODESA) gave way to democratic elections that resulted in the Government ofNational Unity (GNU). In the first five years in office, the African NationalCongress (ANC) led government introduced far-reaching legislative mechanismsincluding the supreme law of the land, (the Constitution) within whichtransformation and nation building objectives were envisaged. Part of thesevicissitudes relates to democratisation of labour relations in South Africa.Applicable pieces of legislation were accordingly revised. The most fundamentalchange is the introduction and implementation of the new Labour Relations Act66 of 1995 (LRA) which became operational in November 1996.The labour movement and management view these changes differently. Theblue-collar workers on the one hand have certain expectations about thesechanges. They expect that things would change for the better at their respectiveworkplaces/campuses, that their working conditions and security of their jobswould improve. The university management on the other hand views itself asbeing hard-pressed by imposing government directives that prescribe inflexiblepreconditions to transform their institutions. The protracted labour disputes andaccelerated incidences of industrial action in this sector were largely propelled byabysmal conditions perpetrated by banditry oriented policies of the past system.The current labour disputes especially in the early nineties between the bluecollarworkers and management authorities should be seen in this context.This study undertook an investigation, clarification and delineation of the fullrange of factors (i.e. social, economic, political, organisational, institutional, ete)causing labour disputes and industrial action at South African universities. The _investigation was performed both through the literature and empirical studies.Two university campuses in the Free State, the University of the Orange FreeState (UOFS) and Vista University in Bloemfontein formed case studies for theempirical part of the research. The literature study consists of the reconstructionof the history of labour relations system in South Africa in which the influencesthat this broad labour relations practice on industrial action -pattern in the SouthAfrican university sector in particular were evinced. The literature study alsocovers the historical background of the two case studies as well as backgroundof their labour relations practice. A detailed explication on the objectives of thenew Labour Relations Act (LRA) and on how the parties in labour relationspractice in this sector would be affected by this law also formed part of theliterature study. The main objective of the LRA is to promote productiveemployment relationships.In the empirical phase of the study, insightful findings regarding labour relationspractice were noted on two methodologically relevant case studies, thehistorically Black and historically White institutions. The empirical studyconsists of descriptive and exploratory investigations of the biographical profile ofthe respondents at both campuses. There has been compelling evidence thatgenerally defines more severe consequences of industrial action in the formercategory of institutions as opposed to the latter. Although the findings of thisstudy cannot simply be generalised to other campuses, the study provides usefulinsights that can be drawn to enhance amity in labour relations in the rest of thecampuses nationally.The value of the study lies in the sociological contribution it seeks to make interms of attempting to magnify a deeper understanding of the nature, problemsand dynamics of labour relations at South African universities. The study alsoattempts to make a revelation regarding some of the subtle transformatoryfactors that have come to riddle labour relations practice in the university sectorin South Africa.

[发布机构] University of the Free State