LABOUR RESEARCH SERVICE
Research in Cape Town

The Labour Research Service (LRS) was established in 1986 as a non-profit labour service organisation. The LRS specialises in research, dialogue-building, and developmental projects with the broad aim of strengthening civil society and a particular focus on the world of the work. To promote the public image and interests of labour in a non-sectarian South African Society. To contribute toward the development of a skilled trade union leadership. To strengthen trade union bargaining capacity so as to improve the living conditions of workers and their extended families. The Library is now OPEN after renovations to transform it into the Community House Labour Archive and Library. To highlight the importance of non-wage needs/quality of life issues and demands, expressed by women as important Collective Bargaining demands. young women; promote work-home balance; and develop strategies for making the links between paid and unpaid work. Campaign achievements thus far Since the launch of the Campaign on 27 October 2007 the construction trade unions have been involved in several instances of industrial strike action (22 in one year) to improve workers conditions, made rapid progress in recruitment, made proactive and advanced preparations to negotiate new agreements with employers, and established a firm commitment by FIFA to decent work and the utilization of International campaign instruments. This action led to a wave of strike action across the country. This demand set a nation-wide trend in future strikes. Unions managed to ensure that the subcontractors' complied with the statutory minimum wages across the 2010 stadiums. The level of unionisation on 2010 stadium construction sites increased substantially since the beginning of the campaign in It is expected that the levels of trade union density would have impressively increased in line with the objective of the campaign by the end of the year. The increased level of coordination amongst BWI affiliates is a manifestation of the impact of the campaign. Currently, unions are engaging in provincial public hearings to intervene in the civil engineering sectoral determination processes to extend minimum conditions of employment to all workers especially in those provinces where there are no legally prescribed minimum wages and conditions of work. This is the first time that unions have unified and are working together to ensure a positive outcome. Several interviews have also been conducted on South Africa's lead radio station, SAFM and a local Muslim radio station in Cape Town. He also agreed to include trade unions in inspection visits to worksites and promised to continue the social dialogue and trade union engagements even in other continents where major football events will be held. The BWI IFA with Royal Bam of Netherlands was monitored in South Africa as the company has a joint venture at Soccer City in Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela stadium in Port Elizabeth. It is the most decisive year for the campaign as a new civil engineering agreement and sectoral determination is to be negotiated and also, the year in which all of the 2010 stadia are to be completed. In general this will be a landmark process through which the campaign can measure the assistance provided to the unions through capacity building, recruitment & organising, research, media and negotiating skills. Unless, there is a wilful commitment by the private sector and the state to improve the conditions of construction workers which is unlikely given the change in the international situation we are in for a much bigger struggle (between employers and employees) than what we've seen before in South Africa's construction sector. With the world attention on the 2010 World Cup and FIFA's tight hand on time schedules for completion of the stadia and related work, it is likely that any kind of industrial action on the part of trade unions will be seen as unpatriotic.