STRIKES SHOULD NOT BE A NORM

Strikes should not

be a norm

The recent PUTCO strike has resulted in loss of business for the employer, loss of wages for the strikers, loss of 105 jobs of PUTCO strikers and disruption of our transport system on which workers and others rely. The parties are each accusing the other of carrying out unlawful acts and the rift between workers and managers continues to widen.

EWN has reported that the strikers have said that workers who show up for work are doing so at their own risk, and in return that PUTCO has warned that more jobs could be on the line if workers continue to ignore interdicts.

The above description of the PUTCO strike is a carbon copy of countless previous strikes endured by South Africans and in my opinion, it is a very clear sign of the economic war raging in our country.

Vicious circle

We have been suffering from a deadly vicious circle for decades. Firstly, workers are not earning enough to be able to support their families. They then go on strike for better pay and/or working conditions. If the strike goes on long enough the employer gives in and pays an increase that is well above what it has been budgeted for.

This erodes profits and sometimes causes financial losses. The employer compensates for this by cutting wage costs through the implementation of retrenchments. The ensuing job losses reduce the public’s buying power and businesses suffer losses. belts by reducing pay increases and/or spending on working conditions. The employees respond by going on strike, and the vicious spiral gets more vicious.

This is almost more deadly than Covid, more poisonous than state capture and more disastrous than power outages. We are now 28 years into the new political dispensation, yet there is no sign whatsoever of anyone in leadership positions making any credible effort to reverse this spiral, a toxic industrial relationship that brings cancerous damage to our economy.

Leaders, open your eyes!

Leaders in government, business and labour need to remove their hands from covering their eyes and use those hands to fix this vicious spiral in the interest of South Africa’s people,

If these so-called leaders refuse to do their duty, civil society needs to take over this responsibility. This should not be done via any kind of insurrection. Instead, civil society should offer to government and NEDLAC a new labour economic system that turns the current vicious spiral upside down and creates a positive, upward economic spiral; and then see to it that the new system is implemented.

New system needed

The new labour economic system needs to do away with the competing ideologies of socialism and capitalism. Those tenets of socialism that demand nationalisation and that strangle the operation of businesses, need to be discarded in favour of the unarguably positive socialist tenet of fairness for all.

Likewise, the exploitative tenet of capitalism needs to be replaced by truly inclusive free market principles. In this way, the positive aspect of a free market economy (that being the ability to generate wealth) will be combined with the positive aspect of socialism (that being fairness for all).

The merging of the positives of socialism and capitalism will do away with the conflict between the two ideologies and create a new, common ideology called Shareism. Business owners and their workers will no longer be fighting over money because they will be partners in making and sharing the money.

Strikes become redundant

The need for strikes will become redundant because the workers will be getting more money due to sharing in the profits they make. And they will not want to strike because that would erode the profits in which they share. Even retrenchments will be rendered unnecessary by the increased profits

generated by Shareism.

If our current leaders refuse to take the responsibility to make this happen by implementing Shareism, civil society should peacefully but robustly see to it that new leaders take on this responsibility. It is the ordinary citizens of South Africa who are suffering most and Shareism is their escape from this injustice.

To book for our 21 October webinar on 2022 Case Law Updates please go to https://www.labourlawadvice.co.za/ seminar/ or contact Ronni on ronni@labourlawadvice.co.za or 0845217492. �

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Dr Ivan Israelstam www.labourlawadvice.co.za