Trade Unions and Workers in the Periphery: Forging New Forms of Solidarity?

Crispen Chinguno

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DOI: 10.2190/WR.15.3-4.i

Abstract

Neoliberal globalization has resulted in the erosion of work in the core of the formal economy and the subsequent exponential rise of the informal economy in many developing countries. This is associated with a fragmented and heterogeneous workforce. This has challenged workers' collective solidarity. This article draws cases from Zimbabwe and South Africa to explore how trade unions have made attempts to forge new forms of solidarity with workers in the informal economy. It examines how trade unions have responded to the proliferation of the informal economy. The results highlight trade unions' ambivalent position toward informal economy workers. The trade unions passed resolutions and adopted strategies to organize workers in the formal economy. However, many of these strategies ignore the voices of the workers in the informal economy and are not designed to adapt to but to transform the informal economy. Hence, they have not been successful. However, there is potential in the conceptualization of new forms of solidarity between trade unions and workers in the informal economy, but this conceptualization demands the organizational and structural transformation of trade unions.

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