Crossing the Divide

Precarious Work and the Future of Labour

Edward Webster, Akua O. Britwum, Sharit Bhowmik, Edward Webster, Akua O. Britwum, Sharit Bhowmik

• Publisher: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781869143534
• eBook ISBN: 9781869143541
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

While work-related insecurities and worker vulnerability induced by neoliberal globalisation are undeniably affecting an increasing number of workers around the world, Crossing the Divide reveals that the history and legacy of colonialism is shaping the response of the Global South in ways that are quite different from that of the North. Comparing precarious work in India, Ghana and South Africa, this book shows how innovative organisational strategies are emerging in the Global South to bridge the widening divide between the formal and informal economy. Farm workers in Ghana, India and South Africa are challenging colonial-type work practices. Municipal workers in Johannesburg and Accra are organising collectively. In the cities of India, Ghana and South Africa, workers in domestic service, unregulated factories and home-based work face difficult conditions with little or no union representation. Yet, these vulnerable workers are engaging in a range of creative strategies to fight for decent work and living conditions. The studies in this collection are predominantly ethnographic, drawing on the experiences of vulnerable workers through in-depth interviews, observation and, in some cases, large-scale surveys. Together they uncover the largely invisible world of the informal economy and vulnerable workers. Crossing the Divide makes clear that informal workers are not passive victims but are building new forms of collective solidarity to promote their rights and interests.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• 1 A Conceptual and Theoretical Introduction
• PART I Agricultural Aspects
• 2 Organising Casual Workers on an Oil Palm Plantation in Ghana
• 3 Ethnicity and Class: Issues in Organising Tea Plantation Workers in India
• 4 From Flexible Work to Mass Uprising: The Western Cape Farm Workers’ Struggle
• 5 Organising Farm Workers in Gauteng: Economic Upgrading and Social Downgrading
• PART II Urban Considerations
• 6 Implications of Private Participationin Solid Waste Management for Collective Organisation in Accra, Ghana
• 7 Hybrid Organisations, Complex Politics: When Unions Form Cooperatives
• 8 Sword of Justice or Defender of Vested Interest? The Struggles of Johannesburg’s Municipal Workers
• 9 Dickensian England in Twenty-first-century Delhi – Without Great Expectations: Informal Labour Organising in the Manufacturing Sector
• 10 Organising Vulnerable Home-based Workers in India
• 11 Collective Agency and Organising among Domestic Workers in Ghana
• Contributors
• Index