Maybe a small ray of light coming from this story on the post security guard strike analysis.
Meanwhile, Mdladlana said that his department is looking "at the lessons" learn in the recent three-month strike -- which ended this week.

Mdladlana, a former trade unionist and former teacher, said that the secretaries of the various affiliate unions in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) needed to be brought together to talk about the problems around collective bargaining in the country "and the way we handle ourselves in strikes".
I think Alan's comment is so insightful:
These gaurds will have to work for 20yrs+ to make up the lost wages during the strike.
I messed up my maths. I worked out that it would take three years, but I failed to take into account that 7% was on the table from the employers anyway.

Bottom line, the strike actually moved the employees' financial cause backwards - they are worse off for the forseeable future than if the strike had never happened. And then there are the lost lives....

So will give government and the unions learn the real lessons in all of this?

For a time in the UK, if a union called a strike, they paid the lost income of the striking workers. Maybe something like that would make unions think twice before calling for strike action.