1.3 Million Public Workers Strike to Confront South Africa's Inequalities

The largest strike in South Africa in years has been suspended, despite the failure of government and union representatives to reach an agreement. The three-week confrontation involving 1.3 million public employees saw the total closure of public schools and the reduction of services at public hospitals and government offices to bare bones.

In the townships and middle-class housing developments where many public servants live, the atmosphere and the presence of children during the day were reminiscent of the five weeks of World Cup celebrations that kept many workers and students home during July. Analysts noted the strike’s impact was even more widespread than a big 2007 walkout.

The strike highlighted the demand for education, health care, and other social services by South Africa’s poor and working Black majority, historically shut out under the colonial and apartheid regimes.
Government negotiators are now offering a 7.5 percent salary increase and a $104-per-month housing subsidy, while strikers, led by teachers and nurses, continue to demand 8.6 percent and $130 for housing. The latest offer also includes back pay to workers for the period of the strike.

Nineteen public sector unions announced on September 6 they would suspend the strike for three weeks, and declared the government’s offer a victory. They said suspending the strike will provide time to “finalize” an agreement. It seems probable that any settlement will require union officials to sell the offer to members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Independent Labor Caucus.

Rank-and-file members have responded negatively, registering disapproval of the suspension via text messages to and interviews with radio and television stations. They’re calling the sudden retreat a “sellout” and loudly questioning the effectiveness of resuming work without a deal in sight. Said one disgruntled teacher, “What was the point?”

During the strike, pickets quickly spread to the private sector, including auto plants and motor and gas station attendants. These strikes remain ongoing, with 70,000 workers on strike demanding 15 percent wage increases.

A STRIKE AGAINST INEQUALITY

The nationwide battle highlights increasing tensions within South Africa’s ruling alliance, between union leaders and militant members, and between the sectors of South Africa’s increasingly unequal post-apartheid society.

COSATU calls for national health insurance, a basic income grant, and an economic policy that can create jobs. It is by far the most important social and political force doing so.

Public sector pay lags behind the private sector by as much as 75 percent in both health care and education. The work environment is wildly disparate, too, with public sector workers operating in dismal conditions while private sector workers have lower caseloads and more resources. The public sector is mostly Black in both employees and clients; white people are still much more likely to access services in the private sector.

Underpaid public workers are more often than not the breadwinners for big extended families, with many supporting up to seven unemployed dependents. South Africa’s official unemployment stood at 25 percent in June.

Government spokesmen say the public sector workers’ wage demands will sap the government budget and needed funds for services. But this year’s World Cup festivities showed the government’s willingness to spend billions on infrastructure that largely benefit elites, including massive new stadiums, most of which are now white elephants.

UNIONS IN GOVERNMENT

The strike also draws attention to ongoing conflict surrounding the role of COSATU in the government led by the African National Congress (ANC).

COSATU, the national federation of trade unions, represents the vast majority of unionized workers in South Africa, with about 2 million members. It is continuing to grow.

The federation and its predecessor organizations were key to the democratization of South Africa. Massive strikes in Durban in 1973 signaled a new, more radical phase in the anti-apartheid struggle, which ultimately defeated the racist regime in the early 1990s. As a result of its central role in the movement, COSATU joined the democratic government in 1994 as a member of the ruling Tripartite Alliance, which includes COSATU, the ANC, and the South African Communist Party.

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Political differences within the ruling coalition have led to a series of conflicts over the economic policy of the new South Africa, many of which remain unresolved. In 2007, these conflicts came to a head. That year, a wave of strikes, also led by teachers and nurses, spread throughout the public and private sectors.

They were among the biggest strikes in South Africa since the end of apartheid. This show of working-class power not only succeeded in addressing the bread-and-butter needs of public sector workers, but also sparked a national debate about how South Africa’s transition to democracy was to benefit the majority.

The contest developed into an internal conflict within the ANC between free-marketeers advocating cuts to public services and those, including COSATU members and leaders, who called for increased spending on education, health care, housing, infrastructure, and job creation. In 2007 the ANC ousted then-President Thabo Mbeki, who was replaced by the COSATU-backed Jacob Zuma, who went on to be elected president of the country.

STRIKE WAVE

This summer’s national strike has played out as a rematch between the competing elements within the government.

Since 2007, South Africa has witnessed an ongoing series of strikes across the economy, among construction workers, doctors, nurses, and security guards, as well as an upsurge in community protests demanding improvements in government delivery of housing, electricity, sanitation, jobs, and education. A major victory in health care was achieved by community organizations (with labor support) when Mbeki’s denial of the HIV crisis was reversed and South Africa’s 5.7 million HIV-positive citizens gained access to appropriate drugs.

In this context, government’s increasingly harsh reaction to strikers aimed to contain COSATU’s potential political power. On the first day of the strike, President Zuma, once seen as the pro-labor alternative to Mbeki, obliquely threatened teachers and nurses with mass firing or a lockout, saying, “You can't sit for a year without the kids going to school…If the time goes, it means the government will have to take other actions.”

Zuma also called on police to use rubber bullets and water cannons against pickets, which they did in the streets of Soweto and Johannesburg in the strike’s first week.

Government spokesmen pursued a disinformation campaign aimed at confusing citizens about the gap between workers’ demands and government offers.

Meanwhile, government-owned television news and radio reports focused heavily on sporadic incidents of violence between strikers and scabs, as well as medical horror stories attributed to strike-induced backlogs at hospitals.

The suspension of the strike leaves rank-and-file members frustrated and raises questions. It remains unclear why union leaders suspended an effective strike without an agreement. Union members and analysts have raised the possibilities of both back-room political dealing and increased threats of firings and lockouts. The impact of the strike on the ruling coalition, and on Zuma’s political career, also remain up in the air.

More immediately, the terms under which workers will return to schools, hospitals, and government agencies are uncertain. Whether they are returning under the old contract or the government’s latest offer has not been announced to members or the public. There were reports of teachers remaining home on their supposed first day back. In any case, an improved offer after the 21-day cooling-off period is unlikely without renewed strike action.

Kate Griffiths is a writer and researcher based in Durban, South Africa.