The strategic choices unions make are shaped by rank and file perceptions and the extent of commitment to a broad trade union-based project for social redress. This article explores the extent of internal unity and the nature and underpinnings of organizational participation by members of South Africa's largest trade union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, based on a nationwide survey of trade union members conducted in the private sector in 1998. The survey findings revealed that members shared a clear notion of trade union identity centering around accountability, the defining of interests in collective terms, the will and capacity to make use of collective action, and the ability to count on solidarity action from community organizations and other unions. Less predictably, the survey revealed a remarkably low degree of social segmentation within COSATU, “the unity necessary for long-term strength.”
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