Labour management and technological change : a history of stevedoring in Durban : 1959-1990.

Abstract

This thesis considers the history of stevedoring work and workers in Durban between 1959 and 1990. In particular I focus on the two distinct themes of "labour management" and "technological change" in order to denlonstrate the transformations that have occurred in the port. In examining the dranlatic technological changes in the harbour I analyze the particular difficulties that the industry faced in coping with the deluands of the changes in the structure ofthe global shipping industry. In discussing the different reginles of labour adnlinistration in the harbour I show the relationships between the implementation ofApartheid and the practice of stevedoring work in Durban. Finally I show how these thenles are related in carefully considering the positions of these workers at the nloments of technological change, retrenchment and unionization. I suggest that we cannot understand these processes of change without understanding the specific kinds of control under which these workers laboured during Apartheid.