A sociological analysis of industrial action among blue-collar workers at South African universities with reference to two campuses in the Free State

English: In recent years, the South African university sector has come to be characterised by trade union and student backlash. The roots of the crises lie in the need to transform this sector. The acceptability and effectiveness of tertiary education institution rest fundamentally on visible institutional change that parallels the change the country is currently undergoing. One of the flashpoints in the transformation process in this sector has been a wave of industrial action by the blue-collar workers amidst the arbitrary and often paternalistic authority of almost an all white management in virtually all the university campuses nationally. The 2nd of February 1990, however, brought into the scene the whole array of changes that overhauled the draconian-type social policy of the apartheid regime. The constitutional talks in the Convention for Democratic South Africa (CODESA) gave way to democratic elections that resulted in the Government of National Unity (GNU). In the first five years in office, the African National Congress (ANC) led government introduced far-reaching legislative mechanisms including the supreme law of the land, (the Constitution) within which transformation and nation building objectives were envisaged. Part of these vicissitudes relates to democratisation of labour relations in South Africa. Applicable pieces of legislation were accordingly revised. The most fundamental change is the introduction and implementation of the new Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) which became operational in November 1996. The labour movement and management view these changes differently. The blue-collar workers on the one hand have certain expectations about these changes. They expect that things would change for the better at their respective workplaces/campuses, that their working conditions and security of their jobs would improve. The university management on the other hand views itself as being hard-pressed by imposing government directives that prescribe inflexible preconditions to transform their institutions. The protracted labour disputes and accelerated incidences of industrial action in this sector were largely propelled by abysmal conditions perpetrated by banditry oriented policies of the past system. The current labour disputes especially in the early nineties between the bluecollar workers and management authorities should be seen in this context. This study undertook an investigation, clarification and delineation of the full range of factors (i.e. social, economic, political, organisational, institutional, ete) causing labour disputes and industrial action at South African universities. The _ investigation was performed both through the literature and empirical studies. Two university campuses in the Free State, the University of the Orange Free State (UOFS) and Vista University in Bloemfontein formed case studies for the empirical part of the research. The literature study consists of the reconstruction of the history of labour relations system in South Africa in which the influences that this broad labour relations practice on industrial action -pattern in the South African university sector in particular were evinced. The literature study also covers the historical background of the two case studies as well as background of their labour relations practice. A detailed explication on the objectives of the new Labour Relations Act (LRA) and on how the parties in labour relations practice in this sector would be affected by this law also formed part of the literature study. The main objective of the LRA is to promote productive employment relationships. In the empirical phase of the study, insightful findings regarding labour relations practice were noted on two methodologically relevant case studies, the "historically Black" and "historically White" institutions. The empirical study consists of descriptive and exploratory investigations of the biographical profile of the respondents at both campuses. There has been compelling evidence that generally defines more severe consequences of industrial action in the former category of institutions as opposed to the latter. Although the findings of this study cannot simply be generalised to other campuses, the study provides useful insights that can be drawn to enhance amity in labour relations in the rest of the campuses nationally. The value of the study lies in the sociological contribution it seeks to make in terms of attempting to magnify a deeper understanding of the nature, problems and dynamics of labour relations at South African universities. The study also attempts to make a revelation regarding some of the subtle transformatory factors that have come to riddle labour relations practice in the university sector in South Africa.