SA Western Cape-based Transport and Omnibus Workers’ Union On Strike For Health And Safety And Proper Work Conditions
SA Western Cape-based Transport and Omnibus Workers’ Union On Strike For Health And Safety And Proper Work Conditions
A BLEAK 2010 OUTLOOK FOR LABOUR
From a labour viewpoint, there is little to celebrate with the arrival of the 2010. The pending World Cup, the announcement of booming minerals sales to China and the various blips and surges on global Stock Exchanges do not signal joy to workers and their organisations.
More unemployment, greater levels of casualisation, more downward pressure on wages and the demand for more output from fewer personnel are what seem to be in store, overall. Locally, and even before the World Cup gets underway in June, the first effects will have been felt by the small army of casual labourers who helped build the stadiums around the country. By the end of March, the last of them will probably be out of work.
And while mining companies cheer at the increase in sales of iron ore and other minerals to China, there is a growing awareness in trade union circles that this means further job losses down the line: a proportion of the iron ore, for example, will return to South Africa as finished steel products, undercutting what local industry can produce. For years the unions — and some local employers — have raised warnings about the consequences of such sales.
More than ten years ago, local steel flange makers first registered their complaints and concern about unfair competition from China. Academic analysts also pointed out that income from the export of mineral wealth from South Africa was not ploughed back into productive and sustainable enterprises: that much of it went — and continues to go — abroad in the form of dividends that help to swell the already worryingly large current account deficit.
This export of wealth is very much part of mainstream economic thinking these days. A classic example, was the advice given on national radio earlier this month by financial adviser Magnus Heystek. Asked what he would do if given R1 million, he said: “Take it offshore and invest in China, India and Brazil.”
His advice makes complete sense only in terms of what many unionists see as the insane financial chess game that continues to be played around the world, a game in which workers are pawns to be exploited and sacrificed by the millions. There is nothing productive or sustainable in gambling on which regime or manufacturing entity can extract maximum profits for parasitic investors.
But in a global economy, choking on surplus capacity, this is the name of the game for those who effectively play bagatelle with billions of dollars, euros, pounds, yen and rands. The gamble is for maximum financial returns which can only come through greater exploitation, job losses and suffering along with further destruction of the planet’s ecosystem.
This is a case of paper chasing paper to the detriment of the bulk of humanity. The government, as it pursues its “job opportunities” programme, is also contributing to the casualisation of labour. Seldom, if ever, do these short-term and sometimes part-time “opportunities” translate into anything more or better.
But the idea of part-time or short-time working is now accepted in countries around the world as frantic attempts are made to stablise an inherently unstable system. The French and German governments top up the wages for workers on short time; the Czech republic plans to do something similar this year and various Italian regions are introducing “social shock absorber” policies to try to cushion the effects of recession.
Most of these measures are based on existing unemployment benefits, but this has its limits. This month, in Romania, it was proposed that workers take ten days’ compulsory and unpaid leave and that fringe benefits be eliminated and a 40 per cent wage cut is also being debated.
Even in the highly developed economy of Finland — home of Nokia — and despite the boom in mobile communications, the crisis is being felt. This year Finnish technology workers will receive a 0.5 per cent pay rise. And the unions have agreed to hold pay demands over the next two years in order to try to save jobs.
But these are all piecemeal, ad hoc responses that fail to address the fundamental problem of the system itself. In the process, as the European Transport Workers' Federation has pointed out, transport safety is being compromised.
Similar complaints, about road transport, initially brought by the Western Cape-based Transport and Omnibus Workers’ Union. have made headlines locally over recent weeks. Solo drivers having to drive for eight or ten hours at a stretch and unroadworthy buses are all seen by the unions as symptoms of the desperate rush to cut costs in order to maintain or even increase profits.
This aspect is most often ignored by business pundits who tend to hail, in isolation, slight increases in output or improved profitability as signs that “the recession is at an end”. For the majority of people it is most definitely not at an end as they face often horrendous human and environmental costs.
It is only the wealthy minority and their immediate hangers-on who prosper as the wage and welfare gap continues to widen. At a time when many workers faced a bleak Christmas last month and there were government calls for belt tightening, several unionists pointed out that “the fat cats are still getting the cream”.
They were referring to reports that a number of leading company directors had pocketed at least R660 million in share sales just before the festive season. Leading the pack was Whitey Basson, head of Shoprite, who also exercised an option to buy another R600 million worth of shares at the knock-down price of R6.1 million.
This is a global phenomenon, and is something that will be raised in June at the world congress of the International Trade Union Confederation in Vancouver, Canada. There the assembled union delegates will almost certainly agree about the need to transform the world economic order to “serve the interests of the workers and the poor”. But whether they can agree on a means to achieve this remains moot.
Terry Bell
writing, editing, broadcasting
specialising in:
political/economic analysis and labour
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South Africa
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