The problems related to violence and intimidation in strikes has been a significant issue in the labour market for the past 10 years. Both the government and employers have condoned such activities and have not pushed the full extent of the law to ensure that this kind of behaviour is dealt with appropriately
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What unfolded over the past few weeks at local platinum mines is a direct result of not dealing with the issues as they arose. Long before the deaths that occurred in the last three weeks there has been violent and intimidatory behaviour at these mines going back 10 to 15 years with the Workers’ Mouthpiece as a rival to the National Union of Mineworkers.
The flashpoint that occurred, which resulted in the unfortunate deaths of citizens, is just one example of how chaotic our labour market is. We have seen over many years large industrial strikes like the metal and engineering sector strike, the chemical industry strike, the road freight strike as well as the Metrorail strike, where a number of people have been injured and killed.
The question is: what decisive action has been taken and what follow-up investigation has been done by the police to bring to book the people who were responsible for the violence, intimidation and murders in these strikes?
Tracing this back over the past decade, one will find very few people were charged and prosecuted. And few resources have been deployed in ensuring examples would show that this kind of behaviour is unacceptable in a free and democratic society.
Worse is that the government understands and recognises that violence and intimidation in strikes is a problem. In the Nedlac negotiations last year the government proposed very strong measures to ensure that the legislation created a framework to deal with this decisively.
The most obvious proposal, which is internationally recognised, is strikes losing protection when violence and intimidatory behaviour occurs. There has been huge opposition to such changes from trade unions while the government already relented on some of these.
What is common in strikes now, as analysed by researchers, is that the majority of employees would like to go to work peacefully and continue their jobs. But a small minority embark on violent and intimidatory behaviour to influence colleagues to stay away from work.
This is exactly what is happening at the mines. While most people are prepared to conduct themselves in an orderly way and abide by agreements, there are those who influence the majority by violent and intimidatory behaviour.
This is outlawed by our constitution and provides an unbalanced labour law situation. The more violent and intimidatory you are, the more you get your way, which creates an imbalance in the labour market.
The trend is not to deal with the continual violence, intimidation and deaths that occur in strikes. Then flashpoints erupt.
The principle contained in our legislation of one union per workplace needs to be ensured. Rivalry among unions today is about membership and fees.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union claims to have 30 000 members. At about R100 a member a month it becomes a significant business
To some extent we have lost the ability to account for workers’ monies and to have workers’ interests solely at the centre.
Jonathan Goldberg is the chief executive of Global Business Solutions. E-mail him at [email protected].