Exploring the impact of trade union power struggles on the employment relationship in the South African mining sector

Abstract

This study focused on gathering information through literature as well as on the experiences of employees at a mine in Marikana on the effect of power struggles between trade unions and the influence thereof on the employment relationship. The majority of the research focused on the two key unions in the mining industry namely, The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). The impact of power struggles has an influence on trust members has in their unions. The general objective of the study was to explore what the impact of the power struggle between trade unions is on the employment relationship. The study consisted of the following two articles: Article 1: The employment relationship and the power struggle between trade unions: A literature review Article 2: Exploring employees’ perspectives about trade union power struggles and the influence thereof on the employment relationship. A qualitative research approach was used in this study in order to achieve the objectives (Hopper, 2011). The participants were able to describe their perceptions and experiences around the phenomenon of a power struggle as they perceived them through the research design and approach used for this study. The selection criteria for participants in this study were employees of the Lonmin mine in Marikana. A voluntary sample of 12 (N=12) participants for article two were drawn from employees willing to take part in the study. Semi-structured, one-to-one interviews were conducted with each participant in the study. Data analysis was done by making use of content analysis designed by Creswell (2009). A literature review was conducted for article 1. The main findings collected from literature was that industrial action and wage negotiations enhance the severity of the conflict between trade unions. The reason being that if one trade union fails to deliver on the demands of employees, it sets the scene for another union to come in and deliver. Labour legislation should provide the balance when it comes to power. For article 2, four categories of findings were created, which were the majoritarian approach to trade unionism and failure of the Labour Relations Act. Themes were found for each category respectively with subthemes identified for each theme. The results for article 2 indicated that employees are aware of a power struggle that exists between two key trade unions at the specific mine. The results correlate with findings of other studies done about the causes and consequences of trade union power struggles. Overall employees perceive trade union power struggles as creating a hostile environment that leads to violence. Limitations of the articles and recommendations for future research and practice were discussed in the final chapter of this study.