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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Riches from Rags: Bosses and Unions in the Cape Clothing Industry, 1926-1937 |
Author: | Nicol, Martin |
Year: | 1983 |
Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
Volume: | 9 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | April |
Pages: | 239-257 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | trade unions clothing industry History and Exploration Economics and Trade Labor and Employment |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636302 |
Abstract: | This article traces the relationship between the Cape Wholesale Clothing and Shirt Manufacturers Association (CWCMA) and the Garment Workers' Union of the Cape Peninsola (GWUCP) in the ten years prior to the formation of an industrial council in 1936. It shows that the power of the Minister of Labour to register one union in preference to another at a crucial time has equal possibilities for influencing the nature of trade unionism in an industry at an earlier stage. In the case of the Cape clothing industry, the Minister upheld the registration of a union committed to conciliation and collaboration with the employers (and having a press-ganged membership) against a union which insisted that workers could only advance their interests through strong organisation. The article also serves to illustrate (for the Cape clothing industry) the point, that while the Pact government did make concessions to white wage earners, these were not of such a magnitude as to undermine seriously the processes of capital accumulation. App., notes. |