ABSTRACT
Since the legal recognition of trade unionism for black workers in 1979, the number of workers joining trade unions in South Africa has grown dramatically. This growth has occurred despite harsh and conflictual realities of South African industrial relations and also despite increasing unemployment and poor economic performance during much of the 1980s and early 1990s —factors which have mitigated against union growth in other countries. Union growth is closely related to the issue of structure — the organizational form that unions assume and the boundaries within which they operate. In this area, developments in the South African union movement also differ in significant respects from trends in other countries. Unlike the trend toward a reduction in the number of unions, particularly smaller unions, the number of unions in South Africa has grown and while there has been considerable rationalization, many unions still exhibit jurisdictional overlap and adhere to a decentralized model of union organization.
