High inflation, growing socioeconomic inequality and huge salary gaps between management and workers are key factors in the rash of current and threatened strikes across the country, labour analysts told the Mail & Guardian this week.
Despite South Africa being officially in recession, the labour movement is pushing for high wage increases for workers in a wide range of economic sectors.
Particularly in response to falling domestic sales and exports, employers are looking to cut their wage costs.
Eddie Webster, professor of sociology at Wits University, said the fact that the country was facing an economic downturn would not persuade workers to back down on their demands.
“The problem is that workers, particularly black workers, are coming from a low wage base. At the same time, we have sharp inequalities between what the chief executives and workers get. Workers are trying to raise the floor to catch up,” said Webster.
Current economic conditions in the country posed a dilemma for unions and employers alike, he said.
“For employers, the problem is that when there is a drop in demand, it is difficult to give the same benefits to workers.
“At the same time union leaders are being put under pressure by workers, who accuse them of selling out if they accept lower pay offers from employers,” said Webster.
His sentiments were echoed by T-Sec economist Mike Schussler, who said that “because of high inflation in the past few years, workers feel they have lost out”.
Andrew Levy of Andrew Levy and Associates said the assumption that workers would automatically lower their pay claims because of the recession was misguided.
“I’m not surprised by what’s happening — unions always want increases,” he said.
“And it’s nonsense to suggest union demands are unreasonable. The issue is not what they are demanding but what they settle at.” Levy said that trade unions did not believe employers who told them they were facing financial difficulties.
A number of strike and wage-related protests are under way. They include:
- About 70 000 workers downed tools on 2010 World Cup construction sites this week in an action that could derail the scheduled completion of the Gautrain, airport renovations and stadiums.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors were deadlocked last week over labour’s demand for a 13% increase. Employers are offering 10.4%.
NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said that although the union cared about the 2010 tournament, it could not allow its members to be “sacrificial lambs”.
“Food inflation currently stands at 14.9%; Eskom has imposed an electricity tariff of a whopping 31.33%; while fuel prices are continuing to go up. These [affect] the earnings of our members,” Seshoka said. “It is a very sad situation in which people think workers must be sacrificial lambs because there is a recession, while that recession also affects our members more.”
- Workers at the SABC began lunch-hour pickets this week in protest against the public broadcaster’s refusal to meet a 12.2% wage increase. The SABC, plagued by allegations of financial mismanagement, is offering 8.5%.
Workers have threatened a blackout of radio and TV if their demands are not met by next week.
- Doctors staged a nationwide wildcat strike last week, but have temporarily suspended their protest pending a ballot on whether to accept the government’s final pay offer. But the South African Medical Association indicated this week that doctors had rejected the offer.
A number of other pay battles in key sectors appear to be moving towards strike action. They include:
- NUM has threatened to strike at Eskom after the utility failed to meet its demand for a 15% wage increase. The union has rejected Eskom’s final offer of 8% and has asked it to provide information on its wage bill. Seshoka said that although Eskom fell into the category of an essential service, the union was preparing industrial action.
- The mining industry is also bracing itself for a possible strike by more than 150 000 gold miners after talks between NUM and the Chamber of Mines became deadlocked last month. The union is demanding a 15% wage increase, whereas employers are offering 7%. The dispute has now been referred to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
- Trade unions in the chemical industry have obtained a strike certificate after the breakdown in pay talks at the National Bargaining Council for the Chemical Industry.
A mediation process at the CCMA failed to resolve the impasse between labour and the employers last week after the unions rejected the employer’s final offer of 8%.
Doctors reject latest offer
“We’ll collapse the health system if we have to,” said Bandile Hadebe of the Junior Doctors’ Association of South Africa this week, after confirming that doctors have rejected the government’s final pay offer in a secret internet ballot.
“If the offer isn’t rectified, all hell may break loose. Government has made a joke of doctors for too long,” Hadebe said.
Although the South African Medical Association (Sama) has until July 20 to respond to government, Sama’s chairperson, Denise White, also said that the offer had been rejected.
“Doctors countrywide have expressed their dissatisfaction with the offer and, in line with the outcome of the preliminary polls of our members, we will decline the occupation-specific dispensation proposal as it currently stands,” White said.
Sama’s Norman Mabasa said there is an incorrect perception that only junior doctors are unhappy.
“The truth is everybody is disappointed, particularly medical officers and senior specialists,” Mabasa said.
Doctors in KwaZulu-Natal, meanwhile, are outraged by a statement made by the province’s health minister, Sibongiseni Dhlomo, that doctors have accepted the offer.
“The MEC has again lied to the public,” said Rinesh Chetty, a spokesperson for striking medics.
The government has offered medical officers increases of between 2% and 12%, senior specialists between 7% and 22% and interns an overall 42%.
Mabasa argued that “it’s almost as if the government is pushing you out of the system. If you want a career in public health, you don’t seem to be welcome.”
Sama is demanding a minimum service level agreement from government, which would enable doctors to conduct lawful and protected strikes, saying that unless it is agreed to before July 20, there is no prospect of a wage settlement.
“We’ve been asking for this agreement for five years,” White said.
The agreement will specify the minimum level of required health personnel a hospital must have to provide essential services.
Doctors are unrepentant about last week’s wildcat action, saying that it forced the health department to review its offer, resulting in chief specialists taking home about R1-million a year.
Pophi Ramathuba, who represents public sector doctors in the bargaining chamber on Sama’s behalf, said: “What doctors are starting to see is that government understands strikes better than negotiations.”
White said: “The bubble has burst. I can say to you: this is not business as usual, this is business unusual. This is the winter of doctors’ discontent.” — Susan Mathew