Sustaining trade union development depends on the infrastructure, alliances and resources that allow organisations to endure dynamic contexts. What does it take to sustain organisations in a changing world of work? How can we build and sustain through shocks and transitions? We position LRS as movement infrastructure, focusing on:
Technology for trade unions
Supporting technology for and by trade unions is an integral part of our mission. Digitisation and technological change are reshaping work as we know it, changing the future of work especially in the context of Africa.
We’ve taken a special interest in the impact of Artificial Intelligence on work, on our own learning, on how the update of this technology is affecting and will further affect workers. Our knowledge and cross sectoral view positions us perfectly to support workers as we navigate uncertainty.
The LRS is leading and facilitating conversations on these issues, while increasing our own understanding of what this will mean for workers across sectors.
We have three online databases that are continually updated with new information, accessible to workers and trade unions:
The multinational companies database: The MNC Monitor was created as a resource for unions to support campaigns, education and collective bargaining processes regionally and internationally by providing useful and relevant information on multinational companies (MNCs) that operate in Africa. We monitor over 70 large, JSE-listed companies every year.
The AGREED Database: The Agreements Database has been created as a resource to store, catalogue and share agreements concerning workers and their conditions. It currently houses over 1800 agreements from across sectors.
The AWARD Database: The award database tracks minimum wages across sectors, based on collective bargaining agreements from our member unions. AWARD has 10,000 agreements.
We have an online wage calculator that is widely used by negotiators.
A key issue on the effects of technology raised by workers is that of workers’ data rights. Companies are increasingly using data to measure workers, rank performance, and decide who is rewarded and who is not. As employers are increasingly monitoring workers digitally, workers have a right to know what data their employer is collecting about them, how it’s being used, and why. Unions can scrutinise what data is being collected and why, ensuring it’s not based on gender stereotypes and that surveillance is applied fairly and without bias. Unions can advocate for transparency in how these systems work and challenge their use if they lead to discriminatory outcomes based on gender. The LRS is supporting workers’ organisations with research on this, expanding our own thinking to assist workers in knowing and protecting their rights.
Digital tools for organising
We are using digital tools to strengthen worker organisation and representation. We have new ways to connect, learn and share knowledge through podcasting, media advocacy tools, a mobile organising app, Zoom and WhatsApp groups for women in precarious work. We see ourselves as co-creators of knowledge, where lived experience and inquiry come together online to deepen our understanding of public care work and strengthen advocacy for transformation. Care worker groups in the Expanded Public Works Programme – an under-resourced and geographically fragmented workforce – have demonstrated outstanding self-organising and advocacy through social media, especially WhatsApp.
Just transition
LRS continue to approach just transition and climate change as urgent organising and bargaining challenges. The just transition is a struggle to ensure that responses to climate change do not come at the expense of workers, communities, and the poor, but instead confronts deepening inequality and injustice.
Climate change is a lived reality already reshaping jobs, livelihoods, and social spaces. Women, informal workers, and other marginalised groups bear the greatest burden.
Our work stresses the need for worker organisations to build knowledge and collective power to engage in climate, energy, and policy debates. We recognise the complexity of confronting these challenges while addressing more immediate workplace struggles.
Our feminist lens in just transition emphasises inclusive, gender-responsive organising and the building of new solidarities between labour, environmental, feminist, and community movements, recognising that a truly just transition can only be won through broad, democratic struggle rooted in workers’ lived experience.
Networking and alliance-building
We are ever grateful for the experience of working with and through our trade union members and the trade union movement in South Africa, regional and global organisations of the trade union movement, non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations, academic institutions, statutory bodies, selected private sector actors and solidarity support organisations worldwide.
The LRS continues to play an active role in three retail alliances, convened by UNI Global Union. The alliances bring together unions from nine African countries organising in the three big retailers together (Massmart, Pick n Pay and Shoprite) to share experiences and challenges. The LRS provides strategic support to these collaborative spaces, bringing our expertise on these companies and the retail sector.
"I have sincere appreciation for the exceptional support we have received from LRS throughout the year. This has strengthened our work and boosted the confidence of our affiliates in collective bargaining, with many registering significant wins informed by the LRS company intelligence and sector insights. LRS has stepped in to assist us during critical moments, including times when our alliance lacked the necessary funds to continue essential activities."
In this series:
Identity | The collective ‘coming out’ of care workers in the Expanded Public Works Programme
Voice | How workers’ voice is shaping trade policy
Capacity | for organising and representing worker interests
Belonging | in the trade union
