Globalization and its impact
on collective bargaining in South Africa
South Africa’s transition to democracy in the early 1990s also resulted in
the full reintegration of its economy into the global economy. In 1995,
South Africa became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
and, a year later, the ANC Government adopted the conservative macroeconomic
structural adjustment policy GEAR (Growth, Employment
and Redistribution). Between 1997 and 2001, South Africa entered into
what some have called “the GEAR period” which saw major cuts in public
spending, the privatization of state assets and basic services, and massive job
losses in traditionally dominant sectors such as mining and agriculture.