With the kind permission of Business Day here are some extracts from an article by David Gleason that first appeared in Business Day today – Comment. The entire article may be viewed or downloaded by clicking on the heading or going to Business Day itself.
“SA has acquired exactly the reputation it doesn’t want or need — a country that indulges in wanton annual strike seasons. And the union that leads the way in this mess is the National Union of Mineworkers. From 1995 to 2009 it has called for roughly 500 strikes”.
“And it is closely followed by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, both of them under the umbrella of Cosatu, the federation that sometimes says the right things about how miserably the government is performing but nevertheless entrenches itself in an unholy alliance”.
“And there’s something else we all need to note. Professor Carel van Aardt, of Unisa’s income and expenditure research division in the Bureau of Market Research, says the observable labour trend in emerging and developed economies is for trade unions to seek skills development for their members. They aren’t solely hellbent on wage increases, which is certainly the case in SA. They want their members trained so they can be promoted or acquire other skills”.
“But the effort being made by a Democratic Alliance (DA) MP to introduce a private member’s bill that seeks to limit teachers’ right to strike deserves a lot more careful thought than the knee-jerk reaction from the union. In a statement redolent of classical Marxist rhetoric, the DA is accused of seeking to impose ‘values of capitalisation and privatisation on education’. The union claims this is an attempt to undermine its gains and its intent is to ‘erode working-class victories’.”
With the kind permission of Business Day here are some extracts from an article by David Gleason that first appeared in Business Day today – Comment. The entire article may be viewed or downloaded by clicking on the heading or going to Business Day itself.
“SA has acquired exactly the reputation it doesn’t want or need — a country that indulges in wanton annual strike seasons. And the union that leads the way in this mess is the National Union of Mineworkers. From 1995 to 2009 it has called for roughly 500 strikes”.
“And it is closely followed by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, both of them under the umbrella of Cosatu, the federation that sometimes says the right things about how miserably the government is performing but nevertheless entrenches itself in an unholy alliance”.
“And there’s something else we all need to note. Professor Carel van Aardt, of Unisa’s income and expenditure research division in the Bureau of Market Research, says the observable labour trend in emerging and developed economies is for trade unions to seek skills development for their members. They aren’t solely hellbent on wage increases, which is certainly the case in SA. They want their members trained so they can be promoted or acquire other skills”.
“But the effort being made by a Democratic Alliance (DA) MP to introduce a private member’s bill that seeks to limit teachers’ right to strike deserves a lot more careful thought than the knee-jerk reaction from the union. In a statement redolent of classical Marxist rhetoric, the DA is accused of seeking to impose ‘values of capitalisation and privatisation on education’. The union claims this is an attempt to undermine its gains and its intent is to ‘erode working-class victories’.”