With strikes looming in the gold mining, coal mining, metal and other major industries, potentially involving hundreds of thousands of workers, 2007 is already the most strike-plagued year since the 1994 election.
Jackie Kelly, of the labour consultancy Andrew Levy Employment, disclosed this week that 11-million working days had been lost to industrial action this year. The 19-day public service strike — which labour said was joined by 600Â 000 workers — accounted for most of this figure.
Statistics supplied by Kelly showed the worst-hit year in the democratic era before 2007 was 1994, when 3,9-million working days were lost to the economy through strikes.
The figures showed a fairly steady decline until 2005, when a low point of 0,5-million days were lost to strikes. Since 2003 there had been a steady rise to 2,9-million days last year.
Labour experts believed the public service dispute, during which strikers succeeded in driving up the state’s pay offer from 5,3% to 7,5%, had emboldened workers in private industry.
In most parts of the world private companies awarded larger pay increases than their state counterparts. Wage settlements last year reflected the tradition of pegging increases in a 1% to 2% band above inflation.
However, the 7,5% settlement in the public service, 2,3% above inflation, appeared to have set the cat among the pigeons. Labour analyst Duncan Innes said the public service pay talks had set a floor for other negotiations. “I’m afraid a lot of companies will have to settle way above 7,5%.”
Unions in all the dispute-hit industries were demanding double-digit increases: 15% in gold mining, 12% in the collieries, 15% in steel and engineering, 12,5% in the chemical industry, 12% in the petroleum sector and 12% in the glass sector.
Employer offers included 6% in gold and coal, 7% in the industrial chemical sector, 6,5% in the petroleum sector, 5,5% in the glass sector, 7,5% in steel and engineering, and 6% in Eskom.
Andrew Levy said he believed South Africa would experience a higher level of strike action this year than for many years. Writing in Business Day this week, Levy said: “Irrespective of where the parties settle, and it will be at about 8%, the settlements will have a huge effect on the economy and the bargaining environment.”
Unions for both black and white workers were starting from the premise that the wage gap between ordinary workers and company executives was widening.
A recent survey by Naledi, Cosatu’s research arm, found that between 1998 and 2002 workers’ share of national income dropped from 50% to less than 45%. By contrast, company profits rose from just less than 27% to 32%.
The survey found that while wage increases and improvements in workers’ benefits had been marginal, remuneration for directors and company chief executives had continued to rise sharply.
It said: “Studies have shown that, between 2005 and 2006 alone, executive pay rose by as much as 34%. Research conducted by independent analysts, the Labour Research Service, and trade union Solidarity demonstrates that executives in South Africa enjoy the bulk of company wealth, while the gap between remuneration of CEOs and that of workers runs by a factor of over 50:1.
“In other words, remuneration for the average CEO is more than 50 times that of the average worker in the country,” Naledi said.
Unions in the mining, chemical, metal, auto, tyre and rubber and power industries have already declared pay disputes. The metal industries and gold mining employ more than half a million workers.
Eskom appears to have escaped strike action — for now. Electricity workers are regarded as providing an essential service, meaning that none of them can lawfully strike in the absence of a minimum service agreement. This has not been negotiated yet.
The matter has been referred for conciliation to the CCMA. But, as happened in the public service strike, some workers might down tools illegally.
On Friday members of the National Union of Mineworkers, the National Union of Metalworkers and Solidarity are expected to march to the department of minerals and energy in Pretoria to present a memorandum of grievances against Eskom.
Numsa general secretary Silumko Nondwangu said this week his union would not go on an illegal strike, but would find ways of disrupting Eskom’s operations.
Planned action included go-slows, working to rule and lunch-hour pickets.
Afzul Soobedaar, acting national senior commissioner at the CCMA, said it was in the interests of both parties to have a minimum service agreement in place at Eskom.