Union membership declines in SA: Research

The BRICS Employment Working Group and the Research Network Forum say trade union membership is declining at an alarming rate in South Africa, and now stands at just 23% of all workers.

This emerged during their meeting, which ended on Friday in Muldersdrift, west of Johannesburg.

South Africa has a history of a robust trade union representation in the labour market, however, current numbers show a weakening of the labour movement.

Director at Labour A, Jahni de Villiers says, “I think it’s a combination of not completely being in touch with what members need and then of course your changing workplace.”

“The workplace doesn’t look the same, as it did 20 or 30 years ago, and then, of course, trying to get younger people into the unions, because the stats as it stands at the moment, your age groups are between 45 and 54 years, are the people who are most likely to join unions, so you’re actually missing out on quite a lot of younger people in a country with a younger population,” De Villiers adds.

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Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)