Unions sink SA further into mire

AS THE country sinks into deeper economic crisis, the more demanding the unions are becoming and the more government submits.

The recent strike at SAA exposed the ridiculousness of demanding a salary increase when there was not even enough funds to pay one month of salaries, yet the unions insisted on an increase. An increase that was to be paid with what? As usual, the unions won against a unions-controlled government and obtained a 5.9% increase if there is money available. What rubbish is this? Who bluffs SAA, the government and union leadership? Naturally the government will cave in and the taxpayer will foot the bill – or the government’s piggy bank, the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF).

At Eskom it is worse. According to the IMF, Eskom is overstaffed by 66% and its debt is approaching the R500billion mark, but if mention is made of retrenchments union leaders threaten to paralyse the country. Eskom is a business that must ensure a reliable service and must make a profit. Currently it is not succeeding. It does not exist to provide employment.

We at the Association for Monitoring and Advocacy of Government Pensions know what is coming: the piggy bank, the GEPF, will have to be robbed as usual. How? Easy, the board of trustees comprising mainly of union representation has, for years, remained mum in an attempt to prevent this from happening. Already 29% of the government pension fund’s assets have been invested in bankrupt, state-owned enterprises such as Eskom. Does anybody know how much of the union’s billions have been invested there? Will they dare to invest in such high-risk investments? They own billions of which we never hear of. Recently we heard that the unions have more than R42 million in unclaimed pensions. Actually the amount is R51 million. And the other money? Where are these funds invested other than in BMWs for the cigar-smoking union leadership? What contribution do they make to ensure the sustainability of state-owned enterprises?