Servicing the City: Service Work and Urban Space As Opportunity for Labour Organizing

Against the background of recent city-specific ordinances which regulate hours of work and conditions for service workers in several American cities, this paper interrogates what possibilities might exist for retail workers in contexts like South Africa, where national legislation governs labour standards. Where cities market themselves a sites of investment, how might ‘service’ be a means toward worker organizing in local labour markets? In the context where logistics is seen as the key site of strategic bargaining power, does ‘service’ offer an alternative to retail workers? This paper examines the historical and discursive meanings of service—burdened as they are with race, class and gender relations—within retail spaces and in workers’ deployments, with a focus on South African supermarkets, including most recently the entry of Wal-Mart into South Africa. Through the lens of service, I seek to bring together discussions of consumption and labour.