It’s back to the drawing board for labour, business and the government to come up with a strategy for economic growth
Glenda Daniels
The most significant political strike in the post-apartheid period is over but the government, labour and business appear no closer to a strategy that can repair broken relationships between them.
Unions say the national anti-privatisation strike was a major success; the government says it was not; and business is losing patience with labour.
Despite the government’s “no work, no pay” rule, more than 60% of workers joined the national stayaway led by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in protest against the country’s privatisation policies.
“Between 60% and 70% of workers heeded the call, making this a very successful strike for Cosatu. The success of the strike shows the depth of dissatisfaction coming from the ground. The real test will be whether Cosatu gets concessions after this, so we will really see the outcome after the next few weeks,” says Oupa Lehulere of the Labour Support Group at Khanya College.
But Duncan Innes of the Innes Labour Brief says the response to the strike “was not as good as Cosatu anticipated”. Cosatu would now be best advised to sit down with the government, he says, if it is to have some influence on how privatisation is implemented and how employees can benefit through shares and company profits.
Local head of the International Labour Organisation Charles Nupen agrees: “There is sufficient common purpose between the government, labour and business on job creation and investment, so the lines of communication should remain open.”
Meanwhile, the government has said that service delivery in the areas of health, public service administration and the criminal justice system was at normal levels during the strike.
Labour peace is not immediately imminent, however. The anti-privatisation strike is over and the motor strike has been suspended after incurring a cost to the economy of about R1-billion. But a tyre and rubber strike is under way and a massive public service strike is looming after 12 public sector unions last week rejected the government’s 5,5% offer.
In the interim the government, labour and business are left with the task of repairing their tattered and torn relationships. Negotiations in bilateral talks as well as in tripartite alliance meetings have failed to deliver any solution to serious political differences. Labour wants to preserve jobs and keep down the cost of essential services; the government and business are hell-bent on steam-rolling privatisation as the best way to stimulate the economy.
Business feels that the “common vision” agreed to in the Millennium Labour Council (MLC) has been too vague. It recently made major concessions to labour regarding Sunday work and the right to strike over retrenchments, and the trade-off is that both parties will map out a joint vision for economic growth and job creation.
In the light of the recent strike activity, Vic van Vuuren, adviser to the MLC, says: “The MLC has got to put more definition to what we mean by a common vision. We need a joint view of macroeconomic strategy, like they have in Ireland and Holland to avoid industrial action. Now the parties need to thrash this out.”
Still reeling from the three-week motor strike, a brittle sounding DaimlerChrysler head Christof Kopke says: “This strike is a dynamic and delightful way to create jobs, isn’t it? I really don’t know what this strike has been all about this is the biggest job destroyer. Is this the new and unique way of doing things in South Africa?”
Kopke says the MLC of which he is a member is not the right forum to find solutions to what is happening on the ground right now.
“We are battling to find a win-win there. What everyone wants is job creation and the strike is about power politics, not about getting the competitive advantage that we need right now.”
But Wits University sociologist Professor Eddie Webster takes an optimistic view: “If I were a foreign investor and saw the peaceful protests outside the race conference, I’d be happy and say this is a country with democracy at work. It’s an achievement.”
However, Webster says: “We are moving towards a reconfiguration of the tripartite alliance where there will be more of an arm’s-length relationship and parties will agree to disagree. This has been the most significant political strike in the post-apartheid period.”
He feels that common ground could be reached between Cosatu and the government because neither’s proposal is ideologically driven: “Both are being pragmatic, especially Cosatu, which is making a distinction between basic services and other areas of privatisation.”
Independent labour analyst Gavin Brown says: “The mood of business today is apathetic. Yes, there have been some major industrial disputes and there has been some militant action in the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. But, for the rest retail and food, for instance settlements have gone peacefully.”
Brown says the anti-privatisation strike has been about Cosatu wanting to “make its socio-political point”. But he has been surprised at government’s union-bashing attitude.
“This was ill-advised and provided the oxygen the unions wouldn’t have otherwise enjoyed,” he says.
Brown does not feel that there is room for any real compromise between labour and the government. “If there was room they would have found it by now. Now we have hard-nosed pragmatists, on the one hand, and on the other the dying roars of the extreme left. The government is resolved to go ahead with its policies, and they will do so with their overwhelming party majority … There will probably be a face-saving summit after the strike.”