African Employment Relationships and the Future of Trade Unions
| Published date | 01 November 1989 |
| Author | John S. Henley |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1989.tb00341.x |
| Date | 01 November 1989 |
British
Joirrnal
of
Industrial
Reluiions
27:3
November
1989
0007-1080 $3.00
Af
r
i
c
a
n
E
m
p
I
o
y
m
e
n
t
Re
I
at
i
o
n
s
h
i
p
s
and
the
Future
of
Trade Unions
John
S.
Henley*
1.
INTRODUCTION
As relatively little has been written about trade unions
in
Africa since the
1970s,
with a
few
exceptions (see Boyd
et
ul.
1987;
Cooper
1983;
Friedman
1987;
Von Freyhold
1987),
it is perhaps an opportune moment
to
try to
provide an overview
of
past developments and future prospects.
’
First and foremost, the basic economic environment
in
which trade unions
operate has become progressively harsher since the early flush of optimistic
expansion
in
the
1960s.
Despite a promising start, formal-sector wage
employment has not expanded relative to the growth in the size of the labour
force. Indeed, the proportion
of
the continent’s labour force engaged in
formal wage employment is actually in decline, and rarely does it amount to
more than
20
per cent of available manpower in any country.
Of
this
minority, the majority are employed by the state, either directly in the
government service or indirectly by state-owned enterprises.
In
the industrial sector, many enterprises are heavily dependent on
imported raw materials, intermediate inputs and machinery. Many also rely
on government protection in the form
of
tariff barriers and import quotas for
their profitability. There is no significant capital goods industry on the
continent outside South Africa. Technological dependence is endemic. At
the same time, because of the debt burden of African countries and balance
of payments crises, few governments are able
to
operate for long without
stringent controls on the importation of essential inputs. Bans may be
imposed without warning, resulting in under-utilisation
of
plant capacity
and sudden layoffs
or
periods
of
enforced idleness
for
the labour force.
While the formal-sector labour force has become progressively more
economically marginal since the
1960s,
the political status
of
trade unions
has also suffered. Most governments have espoused
a
variety of populist
corporatism, in either its civilian
or
its military variant, which may be
mobilised to legitimate the ‘management’ of industrial unrest. Even under
ostensibly liberal economic regimes, the state
is
able to dominate the private
sector through its extensive regulatory apparatus, which is used
to
control all
manner of vital aspects of business activity, including import licensing,
‘Department
of
Business Studies, University
of
Edinburgh.
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