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.
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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.
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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
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