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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Undermining Labour: The Rise of Sub-Contracting in South African Gold Mines |
Authors: | Crush, Jonathan S. Ulicki, Theresa Tseane, Teke Van Veuren, Elisabeth J. |
Year: | 2001 |
Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
Volume: | 27 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | March |
Pages: | 5-31 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | South Africa Lesotho |
Subjects: | labour relations labour migration trade unions mining gold mining Labor and Employment Economics and Trade |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/823288 |
Abstract: | This paper explores the growth and implications of sub-contracting in South African gold mines since 1990. It has three main objectives. The first is to document the dimensions and trends of sub-contracting operations in the industry. Secondly, the veracity of claims about the negative impact and implications of sub-contracting on the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the working conditions of black miners is tested. Thirdly, the paper explores the perceptions of sub-contracting by workers themselves, many of whom are not, or no longer, NUM members. Lesotho was chosen as the research site. A companion survey of ordinary miners in Lesotho in 1997 allows systematic comparison between regular and sub-contract workers. As this study shows, the conditions of employment under contractors are significantly worse than for regular miners. Sub-contracting has also been very damaging to the NUM. It produces new tensions within the union, between regular and sub-contract miners, and between union and ex-union members. Notes, ref., sum. |