Paradise postponed: dilemmas facing shop stewards in the new South Africa—accommodation orresistance?

Abstract

The growth of the shop stewards movement in South Africa prior to majority rule represented a challenge to the institutionalised managerial prerogative and cemented the position of black trade unions in the workplace, posing a threat to both Apartheid’s cheap labour system and also to the political control of the Apartheid regime. With the advent of majority rule in 1994, shop stewards are now expected to comply with, and co‐operate in, the implementation of workplace changes which they would have traditionally opposed. This, plus the move towards Japanese‐style ‘lean’ work practices, is creating farreaching challenges for the ‘New’ South African shop steward movement.