African transport workers end walkout
JOHANNESBURG online website , Sept 10 (Reuters) Striking South African airline workers returned to work this week and promised to pursue canada goose uk shop wage talks in a further sign of waning union militancy amid job fears that have eased the strike threat to Africa buy canada goose jacket biggest canada goose coats on sale economy.
With the unemployment rate cheap canada goose uk stuck at about 25 percent Canada Goose online for years and poverty Canada Goose Coats On Sale gripping millions, many South canadian goose jacket Africans have said they are more concerned with securing a paycheque for themselves than heeding the strike calls of union bosses.
Still, a labour turf war cheap Canada Goose in the mining sector retains the potential to destabilise the economy and bedevil President Jacob Zuma African National Congress (ANC) party as it moves towards elections next year.
Apart from the airline walkout, two other strikes by construction workers canada goose uk black friday and petrol station attendants have had scant effect with many workers refusing to heed union demands to down tools and many building sites still hives of activity.
one is paying too much attention to the strike. If we stay away, we don get paid and we need the money, said Elias Baloyi, 33, a construction worker in Johannesburg Sandton financial district.
Even though South Africa is one of the most strike prone countries in the world, this year relatively Canada Goose sale peaceful wage talks suggest unions that once dominated their sectors may have lost a bit of their clout, analysts said.
About 1,300 technical workers with transport union SATAWU were back at their posts with national carrier South African Airways (SAA), ending a walkout that started on Aug. 26, a union official said on Tuesday.
The union had been seeking 12 percent wage increases, about canada goose store double the inflation rate canada goose clearance and double the employer offer. SAA said Canada Goose Outlet the strike had almost no impact on its operations.
felt that we were doing injustice to our members by staying outside too long because the principle of work, no Canada Goose Parka pay still applies canadagoosejacket-outlet , said SATAWU Matthew Ramosi.
CASH CRUNCH Workers in the car manufacturing and gold mining industries also returned to work over the past uk canada goose outlet week after strikes Canada Goose Jackets that halted operations at some canada goose coats of the country biggest producers were resolved on Sunday.
Labour has Canada Goose Online been at the heart of the post apartheid structure with the largest umbrella labour federation COSATU in a governing alliance with the ANC forged in the common struggle against the white minority rule that ended in 1994.
But many workers feel that alliance has lost its focus on canada goose black friday sale shop floor issues and become more about securing votes for the ANC.
SATAWU and other established COSATU labour buy canada goose jacket cheap groups have haemorrhaged tens of thousands of members since 2012 to rival unions billing themselves as uk canada goose being better in tune with the concerns of the rank and file in the face of an economy that has been shedding mining and manufacturing jobs.
reality is that workers in dire economic circumstances begin to get a sense of relative deprivation and start exploring other avenues to improve their lot, particularly when their union is ineffectual, labour analyst Sakhela Buhlungu wrote in the Sunday Independent newspaper.
None of the recent strikes canada goose clearance sale were marred by the violence of last year labour unrest in the platinum belt, canada goose uk outlet triggered by a union turf battle that canada goose factory sale left more than 50 people dead, including 34 shot dead by police at Lonmin Marikana mine.
South Africa averaged 7 million working days lost per year due to strikes from 2007 to 2011, according to the Department of Labour. Andrew Levy, a consultancy that also tracks days lost to strikes, says about 2 million days of work have canada goose been lost to strikes so far this year, compared with 3.5 million in 2012. (Additional reporting by Peroshni Govender, editing by Mark Heinrich).