David Macfarlane
Fundamental conflicts over teachers’ working conditions remain unresolved, despite the averting this week of a strike that would have disrupted the matric exams now under way. The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) remains firm in its refusal to sign the public sector wage agreement.
And future negotiations involving teachers and the government could be imperilled. A document leaked this week from the African National Congress’s top leadership targets teachers, among others, accusing them of forming “an adventurist, ultra-left offensive” that wants “the national democratic revolution” to fail.
This week seven of the 12 public sector unions signed the government’s ultimatum offer after nearly five months of acrimonious wage negotiations. They accepted raises of between 6,5% and 8%. Sadtu “can live with these raises”, says the union’s media officer, Hassen Lorgat. “It is close to what we wanted.”
But Sadtu tore into the government this week for bringing a “culture of reneging on agreements” to negotiations with public sector unions for some years now, says Lorgat. “We don’t have to sign. We’re being consistent, and will still fight.” Sadtu’s 140000 members make it the country’s largest teacher union.
Even the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), which has never gone on strike, has been unusually harsh. “Unions were expected to negotiate with a gun to their heads,” Naptosa says. The government’s ultimatum during negotiations that it would revert to its original 5% wage increase if unions did not accept the 6,5% to 8% subsequent offer was “nothing short of blackmail”.
When salary negotiations collapsed last week, Naptosa, which represents nearly 100000 teachers, accused the government of employing “a reckless negotiating style which could have a devastating effect on education, the economy and on delivery in the public service”.
Sadtu believes fundamental issues such as pay progression still need serious attention, and were obscured during negotiations. In this respect the union is close to Minister of Education Kader Asmal, who told the Mail & Guardian it is unfortunate that “the almost singular focus on wages has meant that other incentives that may be useful to boost teacher morale have remained on the back-burner”.
Other issues “that affect teacher morale, such as overcrowded classrooms and the lack of resources”, need attention, Asmal said. “I would like to see more of our energies put into addressing improvements in the system as a whole.”
Sadtu objects to the government’s “consistent efforts to rubbish the rights of teachers to take industrial action”, and argues that subordinating workers’ rights – “which are human rights” – to the needs of learners writing exams “is part of a consistent attempt to undermine the union”.
Pointing out that all public sector unions – police, health workers and others – announced their intention to strike, the union asks why it was only teachers, and in particular Sadtu, that were “singled out for attack”.
Asmal, though, says he supports the rights of teachers to strike, and that he has “a good relationship” with the teacher unions. “We are able to discuss issues reasonably and rationally even if we cannot reach agreement at times … I have had an ‘open door’ policy to approaches from them regarding important issues.”