COMPANY LEVEL
6.1 OBSERVATIONS
6.1.1 THE BALANCE OF CLASS FORCES AS A CENTRAL DETERMINANT
A brief analysis of the Industrial Conciliation Act (1924) and Labour Relations Act (1995) undoubtedly demonstrated that a piece of legislation, if properly applied, and if need be, legally enforced, has the potential to direct the population in general and the targeted subjects in particular, to behave in a particular way, even if on a temporary basis.
For instance, it has been shown that the Industrial Conciliation Act (1924) contributed a significant part in entrenching racial divisions in the workplace by creating and nurturing a collective bargaining institutional framework, which catered only for White, Indian and Coloured workers whilst deliberately excluding Black workers from such an
arrangement.
It has also been suggested that the Industrial Conciliation Act (1924) together with other pieces of legislation around this time and beyond, were instrumental in integrating and merging the interests of White workers and White capital to the extent that the line of demarcation between the interests served by these two social classes, became not only blurred but non-existent in practical terms. On the other hand the Labour Relations Act (1995) has undoubtedly been able to reverse the situation created by the Industrial Conciliation Act (1924) by inculcating and further reinforcing a culture of non-racialism in workplace institutions.
The formation of trade unions based on race is not allowed and the collective bargaining institution does not exclude any sector of society on the basis of race. With the coming into operation of this Act, there are visible signs that the veil, the ideology of workplace apartheid with all its oppressive and exploitative working conditions for Black workers, at least in theory, is beginning to crumble.
The contrasting consequences of the two labour laws on the labour front clearly indicate the centrality of the balance of class forces in determining not only the nature and content of the laws passed, but also the dominant political and ideological views driving public debates and discussions at any point in time. For instance, in South Africa in the early
1920s, White Afrikaners were beginning to enjoy their political ascendancy, which was accompanied and reinforced by an ideology of White supremacy and a rise in capitalist hegemony considered to the pillars of the ideological hegemony around this period. The exclusion of Black workers from the labour relations formal institutions did not therefore represent an isolated and accidental arrangement, but a fundamental condition in the portrayal and the perpetuation of white dominance and supremacy.
At the time when the Labour Relations Act (1995) was passed, political conditions which were supported by an ideology of White supremacy and a rise in capitalist hegemony had dramatically changed and were giving way to an advanced level of capitalism supported by a neo-liberal ideology with its most propagated notions of 'democracy, multi-racialism and multi-culturalism'. The Black majority, unlike in the 1920s had already taken over important organs of political power, albeit in a restricted fashion.
Central to these developments has been the global influence towards peaceful resolution of conflicts and respect for human rights. It is clear from this analysis that the dominant political and ideological thoughts driving public discussion and debate around this time is visibly distinguishable from the political and ideological hegemony of the 1920s. Moving from the premise that laws are not passed in isolation, but constitute an element of the dominant political and ideological current, it is logical to argue that the labour laws, which governed labour relations in the 1920s are bound to differ from labour laws governing employer-employee relations in the 1 990s and beyond into the 2151 century because of among other things the radically changed socio-political and ideological context between these two historical periods.
Changes in the dominant mode of thinking in societies more often than not, is reflective of the changing character of the class balance of forces. With this understanding in mind, -- a cursory conclusion can be made here that at the time of the enactment of the Industrial
Conciliation Act (1924) the scale in the balance of class forces favoured the exclusion of the Black majority from almost all instruments of power, which during the late 1980s and early 1990s, was tilted in favour of their inclusion. These changes are testimony to the inherent contradictory relations characterizing almost all societies, forged in an on- going contest over diverse and divergent interests the different social classes seek to advance.
The fact that worker participation today forms a key concept and a pivotal pillar around which relations between labour and capital ought to be constructed, suggest a particular stage in the ongoing contestation with relations between these two social forces pointing to a transitional nature of their struggle, with neither force, willing to stage a frontal assault on the other, probably because of the fluidity and uncertainty of the balance of class forces.
This situation becomes clearer when one considers the fact that at the company under consideration, the question of including or trying to listen to what workers had to say only began with the appointment of councillors and Indunas in the 1970s. Between 1913, the year when the company was established and this period, the company was managed without any attempt to incorporate the interests and aspirations of the employees into business strategies and policies. This, it would appear was never a problem since the ideological current during this period favoured such exclusion. As the Black people in
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general and Black workers in particular began sabotage the system around the 1970s, the management of the company began to see the need to bring workers closer.
6.1.2 PARTICIPATION: AN AREA OF CONTEST BETWEEN