Cape Town - Economist say no one has walked away from the 25-day bus strike a winner - the loss of revenue for employers, the loss of service to commuters, the loss of income to drivers and the loss of productivity to the economy attests to this.
On Monday, striking bus drivers accepted a 9.5-percent increase retroactive to April 1, which will increase to 10 percent from October 1. The agreement period ends on June 30 next year.
Efficient Group Economist Dawie Roodt said loan sharks who took advantage of the drivers’ loss of income were the only ones smiling.
“These loans are going to carry exceptionally high interest rates, so the workers are just worse off,” he said. “The unions’ leadership was clearly handing out ‘terrible’ financial advice to members.”
SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union national spokesman Vincent Masoga said the strike had been worth it: “Our members are not 100 percent about the offer, but they have accepted it and it will make a difference, especially the 10 percent. There will be a real increase and it will not be eaten by inflation.
“We are very thankful to the workers because they fought hard to ensure that their increment was one of substantial value… it was worth it.”
Tony Franks, general secretary of the Transport and Omnibus Workers Union (Towu), said members were satisfied with the settlement.
Many workers had lost out considerably in terms of their annual income, but he added that the industry made provision for working overtime.
Michael Bagraim, of the Cape Chamber of Commerce’s human capital portfolio committee, said the strike had done a lot damage to Cape Town’s economic productivity. But he also believed that workers had come off worse than anyone else.
He calculated that it could take up to four years for bus workers to recover from the loss of income due to no-work, no-pay principle, and to absorb the interest on loans they had had to take out to tide them over.
These calculations could be made ahead of time. He was seriously concerned about the unions’ methods of sourcing mandates and decisions from their members.
Last year, the government and business proposed an amendment to section 64 of the Labour Relations Act that would force unions to hold a formal ballot before calling a strike. The amendment was vetoed by labour and never became law.
“Strikes are thus decided by a show of hands,” Bagraim said. “There are two dangers with this. Firstly, only a fraction of the union’s membership are usually present at meetings where strikes are decided upon. Secondly, emotions at these meetings are stoked up and many members feel pressurised into raising their hands along with their peers. The process is not sufficiently free and democratic.”
The Cape Argus asked Ismail Meyer, a Towu member who works as an engineer for Golden Arrow, about these concerns. Meyer admitted that he had had to go deep into overdraft on his credit card this month.
With hindsight, would he still have supported the strike?
“It may sound a little crazy, but, yes, I would. For us it was not about this year alone. Many of us have felt unhappy with our wage increases in previous years, but just accepted it. This strike was our way of standing up to the employers, to show them we are strong and will not be exploited.”
Golden Arrow and MyCiTi were due to resume services on Tuesday, although Golden Arrow warned the service might be patchy, since not all drivers were aware of the settlement.
Cape Argus