Analysis: Solidarity’s view of strikes ignores political reality
WORKERS are too quick to down tools and end up losing wages that will take them many years to recuperate, trade union Solidarity says in its quarterly labour market report.
It accuses other unions of often failing to make an informed decision to strike because they do not calculate the potential losses and gains.
The union cites the recent five-month strike in the platinum belt and the metal and engineering strike, which has partly ended, as examples.
Paul Joubert, a senior researcher at Solidarity’s research institute, said it would take the lowest-paid workers, who had downed tools at three platinum mines, three years at the very least to recoup losses.
“This is with all assumptions in their favour, and it is unlikely that these favourable circumstances will all materialise,” he said.
In the metal and engineering sector, depending on the job level, Joubert estimated it would take employees two to four years to regain losses.
And for employees who were still facing a lockout, by some companies affiliated to the National Employers Association of SA (Neasa), it would take them an extra two to six weeks to recover costs for every day they were not at work.
While the numbers make sense, Solidarity’s argument ignores the political landscape.
Most workers are at the lowest pay levels and have to struggle to raise the base on which increases are negotiated. The historical inequalities also make the argument for most unpalatable and a non-starter.
Joubert said that, even if a strike did lead to wage increases, there were other consequences that had to be considered, such as retrenchments.
“If a strike harms a company’s growth prospects, this could result in lower bonuses or other types of performancerelated remuneration to be paid out compared with what would have been paid otherwise.
“There is a good chance that a worker’s participation in a strike will harm his career prospects, as it may subtly count against him when decisions regarding promotions are taken,” he said.
Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin have all not ruled out retrenchments following the strike by members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union. And Neasa is also threatening lay-offs in the metal and engineering sector, claiming its employers could not afford to pay more than an 8 percent pay rise. The other major employer body, the Steel and Engineering Federation of SA, will pay the lowest-paid workers a 10 percent increase for the next three years.
Irvin Jim, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) general secretary, described Solidarity’s argument as conservative.
He said it was easy for Solidarity to say strikes should not happen as its members were generally artisans and earned decent wages which they did not have to fight for.
“It is completely different for the vast majority of blue- collar workers,” he said. Also, the entire deal in the metal and engineering sector should be looked at and what workers had in fact achieved.
These included that the sector’s national bargaining council would now employ labour broker compliance officers who would act on complaints.
Numsa had also won an agreement that disciplinary action would be administered by the secondary employer, rather than by the labour brokers that had placed the employees in their positions, he said.