PUBLIC SECTOR workers in South Africa began an indefinite countrywide strike yesterday to press for better wages following the collapse of pay negotiations between government and union representatives on Tuesday night.
Union officials said workers had decided to down tools for the foreseeable future because they had lost patience with the government, which is refusing to meet their demands.
The State has offered workers a 7 per cent pay rise and a monthly housing allowance of €75 – the absolute maximum it can afford, it says. Unions, however, want an 8.6 per cent pay increase and a housing allowance of €106.
After the failure to strike a deal with government negotiators on Tuesday, the Congress of South African Trade Unions – the country’s largest union – and the Independent labour Caucus outlined their hardline position. “We have been patiently trying to persuade the employer to present a revised offer. The strike for public service unions will continue until such time that the employer accedes to the demands of the workers,” a joint statement read.
Yesterday’s strike got off to a slow start due to the last-minute nature of the action. But unions expect the majority of the 1.3 million workers they represent to join the strike in coming days. Large-scale street protests are being organised in a bid to escalate the action and press the demands.
SA Democratic Teachers’ Union spokeswoman Nomusa Cembi said most of their 245,000 members were expected to strike, and the Public Servants Association, which has 200,000 members, also confirmed it would join the strike action tomorrow.
Despite the slow start to the strike, many public schools closed because of a lack of teachers. Court cases were also postponed in a number of instances, as stenographers and interpreters downed tools.
At a press conference in Cape Town yesterday, public service minister Richard Baloyi reiterated that the government was already stretching itself to the limit. He said they had yet to decide what budgets to cut to raise the more than €530 million needed to honour their current 7 per cent offer, which will be on the table for the next 21 days.
“As government, we have demonstrated for all to see that our capacity to afford is exhausted,” he said, before adding: “If you talk of an envelope, we have not emptied it. We have broken it.”