The passing of the great Raymond Ackerman last Thursday, got me thinking about the early days of trade unions in apartheid, when they were active at Pick n Pay.
I was a young labour lawyer, and I often represented individuals who had been disciplined by businesses across the City of Cape Town. Employees had few rights back then. There was no Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), and there was no forward-thinking legislation, like we have today.
In many of my clashes with big business, the human resources departments would often ignore my pleas to try to mediate disputes before we ended up at the Department of Labour or the old Industrial Court. In particular, retail operations were incredibly difficult to deal with, and we rarely found amicable solutions.
The one outstanding and shining example of fair labour practice was Pick n Pay. The forward-thinking Raymond Ackerman introduced a completely different concept to that practised by the retail industry in South Africa. He was a people’s person, and he imparted that attitude to his management team.
I recall many instances in which the human resources practitioners in the Pick n Pay group would contact me to say Ackerman had instructed them to find a solution to the dispute before it became vitriolic. This unbelievable attitude became the hallmark of Ackerman. He was able to practise Ubuntu in his own way.
From 1986 to 1995, I often dealt with Dale Fish, a trade union activist who worked at the Kenilworth Centre branch of Pick n Pay. Before writing this piece, I spoke to Dale, who reminisced about those incongruent meetings he had with Ackerman. Fish had joined the union and became a shop steward. He eventually rose to chairperson of the Western Cape Pick n Pay union, and thereafter became the secretary of the Pick n Pay union nationally.
Fish entered into the annual wage negotiations and was always relieved to see Ackerman at the table with the staff. He recalls that Ackerman used to shake everyone’s hands beforehand, and was always cordial and respectful with every member of the staff negotiating team.
Ackerman’s approach and behaviour took the temperature of the room into one of openness and warmth. His approach created the tone for those early days of wage negotiations. Unlike all the other retail operations, the staff was seen as a vital cog in the success of the business.
Every person, through, Ackerman’s behaviour, felt they were valued. These values translated into groundbreaking terms and conditions of employment. Pick n Pay became known as forward-thinking, as Ackerman had embraced family values for every staff member, no matter what position they held.
I recall occasions when I was representing more senior members of the Pick n Pay staff, and I received a call from the human resources management with suggestions for a settlement approved by Ackerman.
These offers of settlement of any dispute were always reasonable and fair. During those early years, I never once ended up at the old Industrial Court with Pick n Pay as a respondent.
I distinctly remember meeting Ackerman at a cocktail party many years later, where he not only remembered my name but clearly outlined some of the disputes that could have turned sour, where he had got involved and brought the tone down to one of constructive mediation.
We need more people like Ackerman in the field of industrial relations today. We salute Ackerman.
* Michael Bagraim.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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