Crippling effect of South African strikes By Hancu Louw & Julien Fievez <http://www.upiu.com/users/hancu-louw> Rhodes University Published October 10, 2010
[image: Dsc_7577_large_square]<http://www.upiu.com/articles/crippling-effect-of-south-african-strikes#> National educators and health workers march to the Department of Education, Grahamstown South Africa. (Julien Fievéz) On Wednesday the 18th of August 1.3 million Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) affiliated workers embarked on a three week strike, demanding an 8.6% wage increase and a R1000 ($145) housing allowance. According to a Cosatu representative, “government had budgeted R11,2-billion for salary increases and R845-million in housing allowances”. Initially the government offered an increase of, 6,5% in response to Cosatu’s request. The demands made by strikers would, according to government, result in an increase of R5,8-million and a further increase of R2655-billion in housing allowances. Economist Mike Schüssler stated that, the South African government is currently spending 12.2% of its gross domestic product on public service salaries, “one of the highest figures globally.” Although the demands made by trade unions are seen as being fair, Schüssler states that, “South African public servants, who are among the best-paid civil service employees in Africa, have had increases of up to 56% since 2006. During the same period South African inflation rose only 30%”. Cosatu, a member of the tripartheid alliance along with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ruling party, African National Congress (ANC), is the umbrella body affiliated to the vast majority of trade unions within South Africa. The strike primarily lead to healthcare and education sectors being crippled due to insufficient staff . Military staff were tasked with the maintenance of basic services, but there were many reported cases of patients left unattended and learners without teachers. Across South Africa, marches and rallies were held in major cities and towns. According to BuaNews (Tshwane), “the far reaching consequences of mass protest action by these persons, as well as the impact on the operations of government departments, ports of entry, hospitals and traffic officers will impede South Africa’s hesitant recovery from the recent economic downturn”. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, recently told Bloomberg that, “The economy needs to grow by 7 percent a year over the next two decades to significantly reduce a 25.3 percent unemployment rate.” According to Statistics South Africa, national economic growth fell from 4.6% to 3.8% due to the impact of the strike on mining exports alone. Even though South Africa experienced an influx of foreign investment during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it was not able to curb the long term effects of the strike. This in turn will result in a substantial decrease in foreign investment due to the seemingly fragile South African market. The three week strike came to an end early in September, according to Public and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (PAWUSA) the wage dispute was settled with government making a final offer of 7.5 % wage increase across the board and a monthly allowance of R800 ($116.32), effective as of 1st of April 2011. Trade unions further demanded that there be no loss of wages due to the strike action, however this has not yet received government approval Although, wage increases across the board seem to have been a victory for public servants, many members of trade unions such as PAWUSA feel that the 7.5% increase has been a, “major downfall in the negotiations from the start”. In light of the strikes it becomes apparent that although public servants are dependent on the government for income, the power ultimately lies with the workers through rigorous protest action. The crippling effect of the public servants strike threatened to significantly compromise the economic growth path required to improve the levels of poverty and unemployment in the country. Unless public servants become more far sighted in their wage demands the country is unlikely to achieve this. http://www.upiu.com/articles/crippling-effect-of-south-african-strikes -- News is something someone, somewhere doesn’t want to read. The rest is PR.— Claud Cockburn www.kwelaxpress.co.za -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
