Three important principles for trade unionism: unity, independence and democratic methods
- Date: 19--?
- Subjects: Labour unions -- South Africa , Quality of work life
- Language: English
- Type: text , pamphlet
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111235 , vital:33418
- Description: The first principle of trade unionism is unity: the unity of workers, or put another way, solidarity, “one for all, all for one. With solid unity, many things can be achieved by the workers. Without unity, nothing of significance can be achieved by an individual worker. What this means in practice is: the organizational objective of a union is 100 percent membership.The strength and influence of a trade union in its relationship to employers depend on the extent the employees of the company concerned are unionized. The higher the proportion of unionized workers to non-unionized workers, the greater the strength. Apart from numbers, strength also come from organizing the key, skilled workers in the enterprise. Depending on what the basis of organization of the union is—whether it be craft occupation, a specific industry, an undertaking, a common employer or general labor —all workers should be united into one union, irrespective of race, religion, creed, sex, skill, etc. All are equal in the eyes of the organization. Trade unions should also operate nationally because local or regional unions cannot develop sufficient bargaining power or competence over a whole range of issues to adequately safeguard the interest of workers. Trade unions should not be considered as closed societies. They should not be an instrument of privileged or elite workers, jealously guarding member’s privileges against nonmember workers who receive lower wages and are unorganized. They should be open to all workers, otherwise, these same underprivileged workers could be used as scabs against organized workers in the event of a serious conflict. If an organization is to serve the needs of its members, it must be controlled by the members themselves, for who but they themselves can best define and guard their own interests? If a union intends to truly achieve the principles and objectives upon which it was founded, it should not allow itself to be dominated or controlled by external interests, be it government, employers, political parties, religious, communal or fraternal organizations, or individual persons. A government may or may not be well disposed to trade unions, but in general, it is very responsive to the interests of the powerful groups in society, usually the employers. Moreover, if a government can control the operation and policies of a trade union, it becomes an instrument of the government rather than of the workers for whom it was originally set up. There are cases where a so-called “union” is organized by the employer for the employees. This kind of union is a “yellow union” (company dominated union). It is dominated by the management or its stooges. It is usually a local union (or a one-shop union), which means that only employees of that undertaking are allowed to join it. Needless to say, this kind of union is totally useless because its basic purpose is not to promote the workers’ interest but to prevent them from setting up a genuine one. When management starts to pressure employees to join a local union, the signals are clear: it is a yellow union. Equally, the union should resist any attempt by any political party to control and dominate it. The interests of the political party are not necessarily the same as those of the union. Even if there are some areas of shared interests, the ultimate aim of a trade union is to serve its members. This aim may be distorted under the domination of a political party whose basic aim is to obtain support from all sectors to secure power.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 19--?
- Date: 19--?
- Subjects: Labour unions -- South Africa , Quality of work life
- Language: English
- Type: text , pamphlet
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/111235 , vital:33418
- Description: The first principle of trade unionism is unity: the unity of workers, or put another way, solidarity, “one for all, all for one. With solid unity, many things can be achieved by the workers. Without unity, nothing of significance can be achieved by an individual worker. What this means in practice is: the organizational objective of a union is 100 percent membership.The strength and influence of a trade union in its relationship to employers depend on the extent the employees of the company concerned are unionized. The higher the proportion of unionized workers to non-unionized workers, the greater the strength. Apart from numbers, strength also come from organizing the key, skilled workers in the enterprise. Depending on what the basis of organization of the union is—whether it be craft occupation, a specific industry, an undertaking, a common employer or general labor —all workers should be united into one union, irrespective of race, religion, creed, sex, skill, etc. All are equal in the eyes of the organization. Trade unions should also operate nationally because local or regional unions cannot develop sufficient bargaining power or competence over a whole range of issues to adequately safeguard the interest of workers. Trade unions should not be considered as closed societies. They should not be an instrument of privileged or elite workers, jealously guarding member’s privileges against nonmember workers who receive lower wages and are unorganized. They should be open to all workers, otherwise, these same underprivileged workers could be used as scabs against organized workers in the event of a serious conflict. If an organization is to serve the needs of its members, it must be controlled by the members themselves, for who but they themselves can best define and guard their own interests? If a union intends to truly achieve the principles and objectives upon which it was founded, it should not allow itself to be dominated or controlled by external interests, be it government, employers, political parties, religious, communal or fraternal organizations, or individual persons. A government may or may not be well disposed to trade unions, but in general, it is very responsive to the interests of the powerful groups in society, usually the employers. Moreover, if a government can control the operation and policies of a trade union, it becomes an instrument of the government rather than of the workers for whom it was originally set up. There are cases where a so-called “union” is organized by the employer for the employees. This kind of union is a “yellow union” (company dominated union). It is dominated by the management or its stooges. It is usually a local union (or a one-shop union), which means that only employees of that undertaking are allowed to join it. Needless to say, this kind of union is totally useless because its basic purpose is not to promote the workers’ interest but to prevent them from setting up a genuine one. When management starts to pressure employees to join a local union, the signals are clear: it is a yellow union. Equally, the union should resist any attempt by any political party to control and dominate it. The interests of the political party are not necessarily the same as those of the union. Even if there are some areas of shared interests, the ultimate aim of a trade union is to serve its members. This aim may be distorted under the domination of a political party whose basic aim is to obtain support from all sectors to secure power.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 19--?
Transport and General Workers Union: Congress 1-3 December 1989, Pietermaritzburg: Progress report
- Transport and General Workers' Union (South Africa)
- Authors: Transport and General Workers' Union (South Africa)
- Date: 1989-12
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: eng
- Type: text , pamphlet
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/102999 , vital:32199
- Description: The last eighteen months have seen tremendous growth in Transport and General Workers Union. Numerically the union has grown from 26 000 signed up members to over 40 000 in the period under review. But it is not only in numbers that TGWU has grown. The period has been one in which new structures of the union have been built, and where new organisational direction has been sought in all sectors. The period has been one during which for the first time in four years, the union has not had to divert its attention to putting into effect complex mergers and transfers of membership. It has also of course been a period charged by major national political developments - from the passing of the Labour Relations Amendment Act in September 1988, to the release of seven ANC leaders from Robben Island in October of this year.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989-12
- Authors: Transport and General Workers' Union (South Africa)
- Date: 1989-12
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: eng
- Type: text , pamphlet
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/102999 , vital:32199
- Description: The last eighteen months have seen tremendous growth in Transport and General Workers Union. Numerically the union has grown from 26 000 signed up members to over 40 000 in the period under review. But it is not only in numbers that TGWU has grown. The period has been one in which new structures of the union have been built, and where new organisational direction has been sought in all sectors. The period has been one during which for the first time in four years, the union has not had to divert its attention to putting into effect complex mergers and transfers of membership. It has also of course been a period charged by major national political developments - from the passing of the Labour Relations Amendment Act in September 1988, to the release of seven ANC leaders from Robben Island in October of this year.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989-12
Volcanic rocks of the Witwatersrand Triad, South Africa. II: petrogenesis of mafic and felsic rocks of the Dominion Group
- Marsh, Julian S, Bowen, M P, Rogers, N W, Bowen, T B
- Authors: Marsh, Julian S , Bowen, M P , Rogers, N W , Bowen, T B
- Date: 2003
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140443 , vital:37889 , https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-9268(89)90075-2
- Description: A bimodal suite of volcanic rocks builds the bulk of the Dominion Group which, with an age of ∼ 2.72 Ga, is the oldest cover sequence overlying the granite-greenstone Archaean basement of the Kaapvaal craton in the western Transvaal, South Africa. The basic lavas are relatively rich in SiO2 (50–58%) and aphyric and exhibit a large compositional range. This variation is typically tholeiitic in that it is characterized by strong enrichment of Ti, Fe, and V in differentiated lavas.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2003
- Authors: Marsh, Julian S , Bowen, M P , Rogers, N W , Bowen, T B
- Date: 2003
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140443 , vital:37889 , https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-9268(89)90075-2
- Description: A bimodal suite of volcanic rocks builds the bulk of the Dominion Group which, with an age of ∼ 2.72 Ga, is the oldest cover sequence overlying the granite-greenstone Archaean basement of the Kaapvaal craton in the western Transvaal, South Africa. The basic lavas are relatively rich in SiO2 (50–58%) and aphyric and exhibit a large compositional range. This variation is typically tholeiitic in that it is characterized by strong enrichment of Ti, Fe, and V in differentiated lavas.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2003
We are all the public
- Authors: Pithouse, Richard, 1970-
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6198 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008562
- Description: [from introduction]: Across the country the most vulnerable people in our society are being subject to brazenly unlawful and often violent action at the hands of the state. Homeless people, refugees, sex workers, street traders and shack dwellers are all being taught, in the most literal sense of the term, to know their place. But state illegality is not only aimed at the segregation of physical space. It is also about ensuring that the people on the margins of society know their political place.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Pithouse, Richard, 1970-
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6198 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008562
- Description: [from introduction]: Across the country the most vulnerable people in our society are being subject to brazenly unlawful and often violent action at the hands of the state. Homeless people, refugees, sex workers, street traders and shack dwellers are all being taught, in the most literal sense of the term, to know their place. But state illegality is not only aimed at the segregation of physical space. It is also about ensuring that the people on the margins of society know their political place.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
When is it legitimate to use images in moral arguments? The use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns as an exemplar of an illegitimate instance of a legitimate practice
- Kelland, Lindsay, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016146
- Description: We aim to interrogate when the use of images in moral persuasion is legitimate. First, we put forward a number of accounts which purport to show that we can use tools other than logical argumentation to convince others, that such tools evoke affective responses and that these responses have authority in the moral domain. Second, we turn to Sarah McGrath’s account, which focuses on the use of imagery as a means to morally persuade. McGrath discusses 4 objections to the use of imagery, and outlines responses that may be used to legitimate the use of imagery in moral arguments. Assuming that we accept her account and that the invocation of affect has authority in the moral domain, we, using McGrath’s responses, examine whether the use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns is a legitimate instance of this practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016146
- Description: We aim to interrogate when the use of images in moral persuasion is legitimate. First, we put forward a number of accounts which purport to show that we can use tools other than logical argumentation to convince others, that such tools evoke affective responses and that these responses have authority in the moral domain. Second, we turn to Sarah McGrath’s account, which focuses on the use of imagery as a means to morally persuade. McGrath discusses 4 objections to the use of imagery, and outlines responses that may be used to legitimate the use of imagery in moral arguments. Assuming that we accept her account and that the invocation of affect has authority in the moral domain, we, using McGrath’s responses, examine whether the use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns is a legitimate instance of this practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015