strikes | Terry Bell Writes

Browsing All posts tagged under »strikes«

Hypocrisy and strike facts to think about

October 31, 2022

(First published on Fin24 28.10.2022 and in City Press 30.10.2022) The decision this week by acting public sector minister Thulas Nxesi to “pencil in” a unilateral payment of a 3% pay rise for the public sector was, as many workers see it, another display of arrogance, insensitivity and hypocrisy by the government. It had the […]

SA’s looming winter of discontent

June 25, 2017

The South African government expects public sector workers and the public at large to pay for the incompetence and larceny carried out by its kleptocratic faction and their cronies. This could mean a winter of discontent as pay and conditions talks loom.

Marikana, mining and idustrial peace

August 21, 2016

The circumstances surrounding the deaths at Marikana four years ago should provide a bloody and tragic lesson about the reality of South Africa’s mineral wealth. Marikana should become a reminder of a brutal industrial history and a symbol for the struggle to improve the lives of workers, everywhere.

Rank & file make their voices heard

July 7, 2014

Organised workers at rank and file level in South Africa are displaying renewed confidence and determination as they launch demands for a “living wage”, for the historic wage gap to be closed, and for their voices to be heard.

Marikana and the 2014 elections

March 5, 2014

Most of the public, along with the media, appear stunned that miners on the platinum belt have maintained their strike for nearly two months. They need only to consider the depth of bitterness caused by the bloodbath at Marikana,

SA workers resist the lure of spin

February 18, 2014

This is the first in the new series of Inside Labour. It appears initially on the Fin24 digital platform and in the Sunday City Press newspaper in South Africa. The curse of spin and speculation is well and truly upon us in South Africa. It could hardly be otherwise, with a major strike on the […]

Clearing up some of the SA ‘strike season’ murk

September 6, 2013

In the face of double-digit wage demands, strikes and strike threats, even more murk than usual seems to surround both sides of the employer/employee divide at a time when clarity is badly needed.

Why double digit pay rises are justified

June 6, 2013

The annual wage bargaining season — erroneously labelled the “strike season” — is upon us. But this does not mean a pending strike wave: most negotiations — as happens every year — will be concluded without any industrial disruption.