Johannesburg - Business and government will be hit hard if private sector unions affiliated to labour federation Cosatu embark on a sympathy strike in solidarity with their public-sector counterparts.
The public sector strike enters its third week on Monday and Cosatu, the country’s main voice for workers, has disclosed plans to rope in the support of their counterparts in the private sector to exert pressure on government.
Business this week stood its ground, however, saying that it was against any plan that might result in its employees embarking on a sympathy strike.
The chief executive of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Neren Rau, said: “We will oppose any means to have the strike extended to the private sector.”
He said it was baffling that Cosatu, an ally of the ANC, had not used its relationship with the ruling party to come up with a solution to the deadlocked negotiations over pay.
Andries Bezuidenhout, a professor at the University of Pretoria’s sociology department, said: “The public sector strike has so far not been that damaging to business, and the logic of secondary strikes is to put pressure on business so that it, in turn, could put pressure on the state.”
Bezuidenhout said it would, however, be “a mammoth task” for labour to pull off a sympathy strike.
“It is one thing for labour to say there will be a . . . sympathy strike, and it is another thing to pull it off,” Bezuidenhout said.
This was because the workers in the private sector would be reluctant to forfeit daily pay for something that would not benefit them directly.
Business Leadership SA chief executive Mike Spicer echoed the same sentiments.
He said private sector workers were constrained financially and participating in the strike would not help their cause.
“I do not believe we will get to a secondary strike, since there are indications that the unions and the employer were about to reach an agreement,” Spicer said.
He berated labour for compromising other people’s rights.
“The unions have been behaving as if their rights are above other people’s, especially when it comes to the right to health, education and life,” he said.
Spicer said the parties should negotiate and find a solution immediately.
Unions are demanding an 8.6% pay rise and a R1?000-a-month housing allowance. Government has offered 7% and R700.
Analysts said it would be impossible to quantify in rands and cents the losses caused by the strike.
Economist Tony Twine said: “It is difficult to attach monetary value to the strike.
“How do you quantify the losses made by people who are taking their children to care-givers because schools are not operating?” said Twine.
He said, however, there was a high probability that the country might experience sympathy strikes.
“Attitudes of the employer and labour seem to be hardening rather than improving and there is a very high possibility of sympathy strikes taking place.”
Although it is difficult to measure the monetary cost of the strike, productivity in the public sector has been lost since the processing of government paperwork is moving very slowly. The daily newspaper, Business Day, reported this week that the cost of the strike could be about R1bn a day.
Paralysed
Dennis George, the general secretary of the Federation of ¬Unions of South Africa, said the union’s members had not filed any notices to embark on sympathy strikes.
“What is important for us is to get labour and the employer back to the negotiating table and come up with a solution,” said George.
The general secretary of the Confederation of South African Workers’ Unions (Consawu), Khulile Nkushubana, said sympathy strikes in the private sector had in the past proved to be powerful.
The public sector would be paralysed should workers from companies supplying goods and services to government down their tools, Nkushubana said.
“Private firms would start putting pressure on government as their profit motive would be disrupted by the strike,” he said.
Consawu affiliates, among them Solidarity, had not filed notices to strike, he said.
- City Press
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