Abstract
Examining retail workers, one of the most precarious workforces within South Africa, this paper asks why workers have consistently maintained a politics around the workplace. It interrogates how and why in the context of intensifying precarity, and the resulting fragmentation of the labour market through casualisation and subcontracting, retail workers themselves sustain ongoing attachments to a collective labour politics. This paper critiques labour sociology which seeks out ‘spectacular’ protest or which explains labour politics in terms of bargaining power. It argues that both strands offer teleological explanations of worker action and political aims. Through research covering twenty years of work with retail workers in Johannesburg, as well as a focus on several sites of current retail labour politics in Massmart/Wal-Mart subsidiaries, this paper shows the persistence of workers’ collective political subjectivity in Johannesburg stores. Forms of action and collective subjectivity endure in complicated relation to the trade union. Retail workers’ labour politics within this local labour market offer us a context in which to trace the constitution, reproduction and contradictions of class identities under conditions of precariousness, which build from the concrete to explain workers’ experiences and labour politics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See http://www.massmart.co.za/iar2014/our-business-model, accessed May 15, 2017.
- 2.
Under the Massdiscounter Division are the branded subsidiaries Game, a mass general dealer and food retailer, and DionWired, an electronics retailer. Under the Massbuilder Division are the DIY and building material suppliers: Builders Warehouse, Builders Trade Depot, Builders Express and Builders Superstore. Under the Masswarehouse Division are mass wholesalers, Makro and The Fruitspot. Finally, under the Masscash Division are branded food retailers, wholesalers and buying associations, including retailers Cambridge Food and Rhino Cash & Carry and a cluster of wholesalers, including Trident, Powersave Liquorland, Saverite, Shield, Jumbo Cash and Carry, and CBW (http://www.massmart.co.za/our-business/overview/, accessed May 15, 2017).
- 3.
Massmart Holdings trades in 13 countries in Africa, including: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
- 4.
Focus group interview with SACCAWU shop steward and union officials by Bridget Kenny, Johannesburg, February 16, 2017; Africa Massmart/Wal-Mart Shopsteward Alliance meetings, June 11–12, 2014 and October 24–25, 2016, Johannesburg.
- 5.
With respect to Massmart-owned stores in the other 12 African countries (the majority are the stores Game and Builders Warehouse), the company bargains with the national commercial union in each country, where that union has won recognition.
- 6.
The research was conducted under the auspices of SACCAWU. It was funded by UNI Global. A nonrepresentative survey was conducted with 109 workers in 6 branches of Cambridge Food in Gauteng in 2013. In addition, focus group interviews were conducted in each branch and one with shopstewards from across the branches. Project researchers included Bongani Xezwi, Ntsiki Mackay, Lesego Ndala, Matlhako Mahapa, Zakhele Dlamini, Tlaleng Letsheleha and Zivai Sunungukayi Mukorombindo. As part of ongoing involvement around Massmart, I also attended the Africa Massmart/Wal-Mart Shopsteward Alliance meetings, June 19, 2012, June 11-12, 2014, and October 24-25, 2016, Johannesburg. I also attended the UNI Global Commerce Conference, March 19-20, 2017, Dakar, Senegal.
- 7.
Focus group interview with shop stewards by Bongani Xezwi, Johannesburg, September 29, 2013.
- 8.
Focus group interview with contract workers by Bongani Xezwi, Soweto, May 19, 2013.
- 9.
Focus group interview with shop stewards by Bongani Xezwi, Johannesburg, September 29, 2013.
- 10.
Focus group interview with contract workers by Bongani Xezwi, Soweto, May 19, 2013.
- 11.
Focus group interview with contract workers by Bongani Xezwi, Soweto, May 19, 2013.
- 12.
Focus group interview with shop stewards by Bongani Xezwi, Johannesburg, September 29, 2013.
- 13.
Focus group interview with shop stewards by Bongani Xezwi, Johannesburg, September 29, 2013.
- 14.
Focus group interview with shop stewards by Bongani Xezwi, Johannesburg, September 29, 2013.
- 15.
Focus group interview with contract workers by Bongani Xezwi, Soweto, May 19, 2013.
- 16.
Focus group interview with SACCAWU shop steward and union officials by Bridget Kenny, Johannesburg, February 16, 2017.
- 17.
Focus group interview with SACCAWU shop steward and union officials by Bridget Kenny, Johannesburg, February 16, 2017.
References
Adler, G. & Webster, E. (Eds.). (2000). Trade unions and democratization in South Africa, 1985–1997. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Agarwala, R. (2013). Informal labor, formal politics, and dignified discontent in India. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Alexander, P. (2010). Rebellion of the poor: South Africa’s service delivery protests—A preliminary analysis. Review of African Political Economy, 37(123), 25–40.
Alexander, P. (2013). Marikana: Turning point in South African history. Review of African Political Economy, 40(138), 605–619.
Ashman, S, & Pons-Vignon, N. (2014). Numsa rupture could mark new start for socialist politics. Business Day, February 11, 2014.
Barchiesi, F. (2011). Precarious liberation: Workers, the state, and contested social citizenship in postapartheid South Africa. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Benjamin, P. (2014). The persistence of unfree labour: The rise of temporary employment agencies in South Africa and Namibia. In J. Fudge & K. Strauss (Eds.), Temporary work, agencies and unfree labour: Insecurity in the new world of work (pp. 118–142). New York: Routledge.
Bezuidenhout, A., & Tshoaedi, M. (Eds.). (2017). Labour beyond COSATU: Mapping the rupture in South Africa’s labour landscape. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Bonacich, E., & Wilson, J. B. (2008). Getting the goods: Ports, labor, and the logistics revolution. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Bond, P. (2013). Debt, uneven development and capitalist crisis in South Africa: From Moody’s macroeconomic monitoring to Marikana microfinance mashonisas. Third World Quarterly, 34(4), 569–592.
Bramble, T., & Barchiesi, F. (Eds.). (2003). Rethinking the labour movement in the “New South Africa”. New York: Ashgate.
Buhlungu, S. (2010). A paradox of victory: COSATU and the democratic transformation in South Africa. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Chinguno, C. (2013). Marikana: Fragmentation, precariousness, strike violence and solidarity. Review of African Political Economy, 40(138), 639–646.
Chun, J. J. (2009). Organizing at the margins: The symbolic politics of labor in South Korea and the United States. Ithaca: ILR Press.
Dawson, M. C., & Beinart, W. (Eds.). (2010). Popular politics and resistance movements in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Desai, A. (2002). We are the poors: Community struggles in post-apartheid South Africa. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Forrest, K. (2005). Asijiki: A history of the South African Commercia Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU). Johannesburg: STE Publishers.
Gentle, L. (2015). What about the workers? The demise of COSATU and the emergence of a new movement. Review of African Political Economy, 42(146), 666–677.
Greenberg, S., & Paradza, G. (2013). Smallholders and the ‘Walmart effect’ in South Africa. In S. Greenberg & K. Strauss (Eds.), Smallholders and Agro-food Value Chains in South Africa: Emerging Practices, Emerging Challenges (pp. 54–65). Bellville: Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies.
Hart, G. (2002). Disabling globalization: Places of power in post-apartheid South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Hart, G. (2008). The provocations of neoliberalism: Contesting the nation and liberation after apartheid. Antipode, 40(4), 678–705.
Hart, G. (2016). Relational comparison revisited: Marxist postcolonial geographies in practice. Progress in Human Geography, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132516681388.
Iqani, M. (2016). Consumption, media and the global south: Aspiration contested. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
James, D. (2015). Money from nothing: Indebtedness and aspiration in South Africa. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Kenny, B. (2007). Claiming workplace citizenship: ‘Worker’ legacies, collective identities and divided loyalties of South African contingent retail workers. Qualitative Sociology, 30(4), 481–500.
Kenny, B. (2014). Citizen wal-mart? South African food retailing and selling development. In G. Khadiagala, P. Naidoo, D. Pillay, & R. Southall (Eds.), New South African review 4 (pp. 56–74). Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Kenny, B. (2018a). Retail worker politics, race and consumption in South Africa: Shelved in the service economy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kenny, B. (2018b). Walmart and labor conditions in South Africa: Local retailing, contract labor, and union challenges. In C. B. Muñoz, B. Kenny, & A. Stecher (Eds.), Walmart in the global south: Local practices, state regulations, and labor politics (pp. 64-86). Austin: The University of Texas Press.
Labour Research Service. (2013). Bargaining monitor 27, March. Cape Town: Labour Research Service.
Luckett, T. & Munshi, N. (2017). Rebuilding a Workers’ Movement. Jacobin, May 15, 2017. https://jacobinmag.com/2017/05/south-africa-trade-unions-saftu-numsa-anc-zuma. Accessed May 17, 2017.
Mashinini, E. (1991). Strikes have followed me all my life: A South African autobiography. New York: Routledge.
Naidoo, P. & Veriava, A. (2005). Re-membering movements: Trade unions and new social movements in neoliberal South Africa. In From local processes to global forces. Centre for Civil Society Research Reports (Vol. 1, pp. 27–62). Durban: University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Ndebele, N. (1986). The rediscovery of the ordinary: Some new writings in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 2(2), 143–157.
Nieftagodien, N. (2017). South Africa’s new left movements: Challenges and hopes. In M. Paret, C. Runciman, & L. Sinwell (Eds.), Southern resistance in critical perspective: The politics of protest in South Africa’s contentious democracy (pp. 171–187). London and New York: Routledge.
Paret, M. & Runciman, C. (2016). The 2009 + South African protest wave. Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society, 19(3), 301–319.
Runciman, C. (2017). South African social movements in the neoliberal age. In M. Paret, C. Runciman, & L. Sinwell (Eds.), Southern resistance in critical perspective: The politics of protest in South Africa’s contentious democracy (pp. 36–51). London and New York: Routledge.
Sayer, D. (1987). The violence of abstraction: The analytic foundations to historical materialism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Selwyn, B. (2012). Workers, state and development in Brazil: Powers of labour, chains of value. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Silver, B. J. (2003). Forces of labor: Workers’ movements and globalization since 1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sinwell, L. & Mbatha, S. (2016). The spirit of marikana: The rise of insurgent trade unionism in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Theron, J. (2005). Employment is not what it used to be: The nature and impact of the restructuring of work in South Africa. In E. Webster & K. von Holdt (Eds.), Beyond the apartheid workplace: Studies in transition (pp. 293–316). Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Van Eck, B. P. S. (2010). Temporary employment services (labour brokers) in South Africa and Namibia. Personnel, Employment and Labour Journal, 13(2), 107–126.
Van Staden, C. (2015). Chewing on Japan: Consumption, diplomacy and Kenny Kunene’s nyotaimori scandal. Critical Arts, 29(2), 107–125.
Von Holdt, K. (2003). Transition from below: Forging trade unionism and workplace change in South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Von Schnitzler, A. (2016). Democracy’s infrastructure: Techno-politics and citizenship after apartheid. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Webster, E., Britwum, A. O., & Bhowmik, S. (Eds.). (2017). Crossing the divide: Precarious work and the future of labour. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Webster, E., Lambert, R., & Bezuidenhout, A. (2008). Grounding globalization: Labour in the age of insecurity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wilderman, J. (2017). From flexible work to mass uprising: The western cape farm workers’ struggle. In E. Webster, A. O. Britwum, & S. Bhowmik (Eds.), Crossing the divide: Precarious work and the future of labour (pp. 74–96). Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Wright, E. O. (2000). Working-class power, capitalist-class interests, and class compromise. American Journal of Sociology, 105(4), 957–1002.
Zhang, Lu. (2015). Inside China’s automobile factories: The politics of labor and worker resistance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kenny, B. (2018). Labour Politics and South African Retail Workers: Enduring Collectivities in the Face of Precariousness. In: Atzeni, M., Ness, I. (eds) Global Perspectives on Workers' and Labour Organizations. Work, Organization, and Employment. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7883-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7883-5_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-7882-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7883-5
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)