One-day strike an ultimatum — unions
• Public sector workers say open-ended industrial action will continue until government gives in
Hundreds of thousands of nurses and police officers will abandon their workstations for a day on Tuesday, opening a new front in unions’ struggle for higher wages and at the same time making the public sector wage bill a wildcard in finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s fiscal policy promises.
The one-day strike, which would result in open-ended industrial action, is labour’s latest salvo in its battle for higher wages as the cost-of-living crisis puts items such as fuel and food out of reach of millions.
“It’s an ultimatum,” December Mavuso, deputy general secretary of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union, said on Thursday.
“This is the beginning and it will go on until we declare an indefinite strike.
“Whether it happens now or early next year will depend on how government responds on November 22.”
The strike will put to yet another test Godongwana’s plans to restore the health of SA finances after his medium-term budget policy statement painted a picture of an improved fiscal outlook thanks partly to pencilling in an increase in the public sector wage bill of no more than 3%.
Mavuso was part of a group of public service union leaders from Cosatu, the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) who addressed a joint news conference in Tshwane. They demand an inflationbeating 10% wage increase.
Tuesday’s strike will be followed by a march to the National Treasury two days later.
Key government services such as border control, revenue collection and maintenance of law and order could be affected
as the unions said essential services workers — who are barred by law from downing tools — “are very keen to go on strike”.
Department of public service & administration spokesperson Moses Mushi said: “The normal strike action management plan will be applied, with public servants allowed to picket only during lunchtime and tea time. Any participation in the strike during working hours will result in ‘no work, no pay’.”
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said the union’s members are tired of being abused by the government and then being told they cannot down tools as they are part of essential services.
“Obviously, they no longer care about that [being essential service workers] because government will remain comfortable knowing they won’t be part of a strike. Our members have been quite clear that they want to down tools,” Mamabolo said.
Sibongiseni Delihlazo, a spokesperson for Denosa, which represents over 86,000 nurses, said the government would be to blame for any disruption to delivery of services as a result of the national protest.
“The government is exposing South Africans to a serious danger ... of compromised service delivery,” said Delihlazo.
In a joint statement, the public service unions said that interest rate hikes plus inflation had made the cost of living more expensive for public servants, the working class in general and the poor.
“These are concretely expressed in the increased cost of groceries, the nutritional basket
SERVICES SUCH AS BORDER CONTROL, REVENUE COLLECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF LAW AND ORDER COULD BE AFFECTED
for children, fuel, electricity and commuter transport among other costs,” the unions said.
“While the demand for 10% against these realities is justified, consideration also ought to be given to the many serious losses public servants have incurred in the past two financial years, particularly the losses of 2020, where workers went without increases, because the government refused to implement the last leg of the 2018 collective agreement.”