Unless you've been living under a rock you would be very aware of the public servants strike that has been ongoing for three weeks. The mass action included civil servants from all sectors of government, public schools and healthcare. The civil servants originally demanded a wage increase of 8.6% and a monthly housing allowance of R1000. The government's original offer of 7% wage increases and a R700 housing allowance was rejected 1 week into the strike. This means that for the past 2 and a half weeks the unions have been pushing for an increase of around 1.6% and an additional R300 bucks a month for the housing allowance.

Putting this into perspective...
An average teacher earns around R10 000 per month... Of that around R2500 goes to tax and deductions such as pension and medical aid. Strikers do not earn any income while they are not working, so effectively this means that they have lost 3 weeks salary (roughly R7500 on a R10k salary). Given that the unions had a firm offer of 7% 3 days into the strike, the workers have basically been fighting over 1.6% for most of the three weeks. If you go and work that out (for those that need a calculator) that is around R160 a month extra. Given the loss of R7500, it will take the workers around 35 months to make up the loss. That's a lot of overtime... The housing allowance increases negates that loss a bit though.

So the unions have now *suspended* the strike, which basically means that if the government doesn't agree to the two remaining issues of backdating the increases to April and equalising the employer medical aid contributions across the board (people belonging to the government's medical scheme get a few extra bob a month), they will revert back to striking. Government is likely to budge on the latter which should bring an end to the strike, but that still means that the workers will be out of pocket for some time to come - probably until the next strike season begins in about 9 months time...

The question remains, given the relatively low difference in the increase and the nett loss suffered by the civil servants, was striking really the best option? We shouldn't forget the massive loss to the economy as a result of this strike, nor the immense disadvantage our school children are now facing because of it... as it is, this year has seen the lowest number of school-going days ever thanks to the world cup!

Finally, we shouldn't forget that people died because they couldn't receive the proper care in hospitals while nurses at public hospitals were on strike.