Staff transport problems tomorrow?

[Dave A]

I'm being told by my staff that use public transport that they don't expect to be in to work tomorrow (9 July) due to the COSATU protest action. Anyone else getting these reports?

[Snoopy_inc]

yip same here. Taxi/Busses are striking due to petrol pricing etc.... why dont we do that?

[Dave A]

I've had the usual pleading that we make it a paid holiday.

I really can't bring myself to deny my staff the opportunity to make their own personal sacrifice to such a worthy cause...

Read: Corporate BS for "Normal work conditions apply"

[Marq]

So I'm having a mid morning break, having to run with no staff today and I am thinking.........'Why do I need staff and perhaps a few less would do me good and wondering what they actually do all day long?'

Asked what the economic impact of the strike would be, Madisha said: "The intent of the strike is to hurt. We don't go on strikes to say 'hee hee hee'.

"If 40% of adults are not working it is a crisis."

The purpose of the strike was to "pull the country's ears" so that South Africans are hurt and will act to remedy the problem, Madisha said, pulling his own ears.

News24 article here

From my point of view they may have just added to their problem.

This striking for more employment is like f%"*ing for virginity. What is their problem???????

[Dave A]

yip same here. Taxi/Busses are striking due to petrol pricing etc.... why dont we do that?

This striking for more employment is like f%"*ing for virginity. What is their problem???????

Sometimes I wonder if we aren't too rational about this.

[duncan drennan]

Marq, that virginity comment is a classic!

But the whole quote - it is ridiculous! So if 40% of adults are not working it's a crisis, if all of them are not it's a strike.

(BTW, the actual unemployment figure is more like 23%. The 40% figure is based on the entire country's population, while the 23% figure is based on those that fall into the working age of 16-65. Maybe they believe in child labour?)

Oh, and he forgot a word from his sentence, it should read, "The intent of the strike is to hurt ourselves."

Striking for these reasons is just plain retarded. Strike for better working conditions, strike for fair wages, but striking about the petrol/food/booze price is stupid. You strike for petrol, you strike a rock.

Maybe the retards should try taking a course in economy - increase productivity (less strikes) and decrease inflation.

Thinking about it, maybe they are right: Strike for inflation!

[kernel32]

Welcome to Africa! After the recent fines imposed on Tiger Brands for their involvement in price fixing, shouldn't that have caused food prices to come down? Or are they using the fine as an excuse to keep prices high?

[Dave A]

As these strikes keep rippling around the country, I see Trevor Manuel has met Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of Cosatu, to discuss issues.

South Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel convened a meeting on Thursday between the Treasury and the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) in an effort to resolve the numerous socioeconomic and economic challenges facing the country.

Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of Cosatu, said that while the discussions showed that changes had to be made, they had just "opened the can" without resolving any issues.

Manuel said the discussions took place against the backdrop of the current strike by Cosatu.

"We have to find solutions to the strike -- it can't just go on and on, we need to solve the problem," said Vavi.

"We have got to show workers something," he added, noting that the impact of inflation was one of the issues that had been discussed.

Manuel said that while the discussions did not touch on CPIX and inflation, all countries reweighted their index every few years.

"We have to give sufficient attention to the scale of unemployment in our country," said Manuel.
full story from M&G here

Listening to an interview of Trevor Manuel after the meeting, I got the sense that Trevor was trying to give an international perspective on the inflation situation - I guess trying to get COSATU to understand that this is an international problem and the strikes were not helping solve the problem.

Time will tell if the message got through, but I've got a hunch the rolling strike action is going to continue. It's just too easy a hot button to press to gain populist support.

[Yvonne]

My maid has told me that a newspaper has printed an article that taxi drivers are going to provide free transport to Pietermaritzburg - Zuma's trial protest, and it is going to be on the same day as the National Cosatu Strike!

Yvonne

[Dave A]

I'm sure the fact that the COSATU strike in Pietermaritzburg just happens to be on the same day as the next court date of the JZ corruption trial is entirely coincidental

Certainly a good day to stay out of central Pietermaritzburg - unless you're a journalist looking for a dramatic story.

[duncan drennan]

Time will tell if the message got through, but I've got a hunch the rolling strike action is going to continue. It's just too easy a hot button to press to gain populist support.

Thinking about it, there are two ways to stop the strike.

1) Give in to COSATU's demands and the government make some sort of token action, e.g. fixing bread prices. This is a long slippery slope.

2) Change the law so that employers and government have some effective tools against this type of action. This restores balance of power.

What other options are there really? A bit of pain for everybody in the short term and long terms wins, or a bit of relief and long term losses.

[anakin]

The toi-toi people more and less got what they wanted so far.

Maybe toinlation-toinflation could work!

[duncan drennan]

Why are there not more boycotts instead of strikes?

[Dave A]

Because it is easier to stop people going to work than to stop them shopping?