AUT: South Africa: Strikes in the Public Sector

["FRANCO BARCHIESI" <029FRB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What follows is a report on the current public workers' strikes in
South Africa, which I wrote on request for Radio for Peace
International (Santa Ana, Costa Rica). I hope it can be informative.

Franco

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X-cs:
From:     Self <MUSE/029FRB>
To:       Sheila Gibbons <ddcies@xxxxxxx>
Subject:  Report for PNN
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 14:02:35 GMT + 2:00

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Report Prepared for "Radio for Peace International", Santa Ana (Costa
Rica)

The strikes that have brought to the streets more than 1 million
teachers and public employees in South Africa during the past week --
culminating on 25 August, when 600,000 public workers downed tools
nationwide - have been brewing for the past few months.

The restructuring of the public sector has, in particular, been at
the centre of a heated debate inside the ruling Alliance led by the
African National Congress, which includes the 1.8-million strong
union federation, COSATU and the South African Communist Party. Two
issues have in particular polarised opinions on the future of the
public employees: the reduction in size of personnel employed in
social services and state-owned enterprises, and the constraints
imposed by the government on wage increases for the public servants.
This latter point has originated the latest stand-off between the
government and 12 public sector unions that come from a broad
ideological spectrum and include powerful COSATU affiliates such as
the state employees organisation, NEHAWU and the teachers' union,
SADTU. The strikes have been sparked by the government's firm resolve
to unilaterally implement, at the beginning of the week, its final
offer of a 6.3% wage increase, following the collapse of negotiations
with the unions, which demanded an above-inflation increase of 7.3%.
Expressing the defiant and confident mood prevalent in the federation
- and directed particularly at Public Service Minister, Geraldine
Fraser-Moleketi - COSATU's newly-elected General Secretary,
Zwelinzima Vavi said that workers were "prepared to months and
months" of a confrontation that COSATU president, Willie Madisha
defined as "too ghastly to contemplate". The government's offer to
resume negotiations after the strikes was not, however, accompanied
by any signal of fundamental revision of its bargaining strategy,
while the unions have suspended the decision on further strike
actions that have been however already announced.

The socio-economic issues that led to the strike, in a context of
escalating industrial conflict in both the public and the private
sector are, however, much deeper and more complex that what small
percentage differences over wage increases indicate. In fact, the
"budget constraints" that are at the origins of the current
negotiating stance of the government follow the ANC's macroeconomic
programme, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy,
which is based on tight limitations to budget deficits, privatisation
and public spending cuts for the sake of "fiscal discipline". The
market-driven approach to growth enforced by the government had
already led to the widespread privatisation of public utilities. This
is being followed by the announcement of massive retrenchments (the
biggest being the 27,000 workers to be laid off by the transport
corporation, Transnet) that have sparked industrial conflict in the
last few weeks, among which is the national strike in telephone
utility, Telkom. Unions have accused the government of unilateral
implementation of privatisation policies, which violates a National
Framework Agreement signed in 1996 that requires compulsory
negotiations with workers' organisations in these cases. Workers'
uncertainty and employment insecurity are, on the other hand,
strengthened by the government's recurring utterances about the need
to drastically reduce the size of an allegedly "bloated" public
sector. Last week, Fraser-Moleketi had announced the government's
intention to retrench at least 50,000 public servants by the end of
the year. This move is facilitated by the expiry of the "sunset
clauses" that, as part of the transitional democratic dispensation,
had prevented retrenchments in state structures inherited from the
old apartheid government. Finally, the government's wage offer in the
public sector dispute was derived from a Medium Term Expenditure
Framework adopted at the beginning of the year following GEAR's
recommendations and with no consultation with the unions.

However, the question of the size of the public sector can hardly be
reduced to a merely numerical calculation, in a country that remains
one of the most unequal in the world, with an enormous backlog in the
delivery of social services and infrastructures, and where government
is substantially reducing its commitments to leave space to a private
sector whose intervention has not substantially reduced so far
existing levels of poverty and social exclusion. At the same time it
seems quite problematic to present, as the government is doing,
public sector workers as a relatively "privileged" layer of society,
to which increasing sacrifices are required to address the plight of
poor, unemployed and marginalised people. In fact the current dispute
is bringing to the fore the dramatic impoverishment of the South
African formally employed working class and the decline of waged
workers' living standards, which are further strained by their effort
to support unemployed family members that are expected to constantly
increase under the present circumstances. NEHAWU rejects that basic
pay increases have been at the origins of a significant rise in
government spending; the union rather blames for this increases in
benefits at managerial positions. Presently, in the South African
government a Minister's remuneration is 15 times higher than that of
an average public servant, while the proposed wage increase is 20
times higher.

For COSATU, the current strike is not just about the figures of a
wage increase: it rather involves issues of principle around the
reduction of wage gaps that are legacies of apartheid, and the
struggle for a "living wage" for workers. This would be able to meet
rising costs of basic necessities and services in a society that is
becoming more and more commodified. Rising costs are, in particular,
the result of policies of privatisation of services (in particular
water and electricity) implemented mostly at a municipal level, which
are at the same time a major cause for proposed retrenchments. In
urban areas, water and electricity bills alone can average 500-600
Rands a month, compared to the 3,000 Rand that a public servant and
the 1,500 Rand that an office assistant receive respectively as
average monthly wage. Moreover, residents in many townships are
facing thousands of Rands of arrear payments in fees and rents
inherited from the era of anti-apartheid boycotts and that the new
government is now demanding, often in a coercive way. Finally, the
current public sector strikes appear as a decisive trial of strength
in the introduction of increasing wage and employment flexibility in
accordance to the neoliberal policies of the government. While labour
market flexibility is a major component in GEAR's recommendations, a
success of the government in its conflict with public workers could
send an important signal to the private sector, which has been long
advocating wage flexibility and a reduction in workers' rights and
protections as a means to attract foreign and domestic investment.

The government of President Thabo Mbeki, who has abstained from
intervening in the public sector dispute, has called the unions to
restrain their claims and militancy. The ANC's chairman, "Terror"
Lekota has accused the unions of "lack of revolutionary discipline"
at the recent Congress of COSATU. However, the unions are now
demanding a fundamental reassessment of policy-making mechanisms
inside the Alliance, arguing for formal structures where an equal say
could be recognised to all its three partners in the decision of
fundamental policy orientations. Such an idea seems, however, to meet
a notable hostility inside the ANC. In the absence of a solution to
this dilemma, the possibility remains that in a showdown between
government and COSATU the workers' militancy can be directed at the
ruling party itself. The ANC has been left until now outside of the
unions' criticism; the party has been, on the other hand, decisively
pushed by working class vote to a landslide 67% majority at this
year's elections. In the event of a deepening confrontation,
therefore, the current strikes could lead to important questions on
the future balance of power inside the Alliance and on the landscapes
of South African politics.

Franco Barchiesi (Lecturer - Dept of Sociology, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg)


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| Franco Barchiesi                                            |
| Sociology of Work Unit - Dept of Sociology                  |
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