The impact of violence and intimidation on strike actions and their effect on union membership in the platinum mining industry

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of violence and intimidation, especially the extent to which these have an effect on the behaviour of union joining and leaving in the platinum mining site located in the North-West Province. Accepting the premise that unions have substantial leverage, both in terms of legislative provisions of the Labour Relations Act for bargaining for wage increases and the capacity for organized industrial action, the study zoned in on the localized offshoots of the experience of union domination as intimidation This has particular value in understanding the often-ignored reasons why employees behave in ways that express solidarity, on the one hand, and rivalry, on the other—both of which articulate to a propensity to behave in ways that mask or avoid vulnerability. One of these ways is union-joining behaviour. Framed on a qualitative methodology, this study measured the aforesaid behaviour through research questions and hypothesis that scale intentions to join through normative beliefs above organizational justice. In order to provide a logical link between its independent variables of violence/intimidation and the union-joining dependent variable, it marshalled scientific constructs gleaned from Icek Azjen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour. Accordingly, it used convenient sampling to manage the data gathered from the Theory of Planned Behaviour Questionnaire, which was apt to accurately and validly score the values of research constructs—such as they were ranged against moderators and mediators. The study arrived at the following significant findings: the propensity to join unions is as much prompted by an urgent sense of threat to job security and personal safety as it is by the need to leverage organizational justice. On the basis of these findings, the study makes bold recommendations to all concerned stakeholders.