SOUTH AFRICA: PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS GO ON STRIKE TO PROTEST ABOUT GOVERNMENT IMPOSED PAY DEAL AND DEMAND STALLED WAGE TALKS TO CONTINUE

Record ID: 341945

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS GO ON STRIKE TO PROTEST ABOUT GOVERNMENT IMPOSED PAY DEAL AND DEMAND STALLED WAGE TALKS TO CONTINUE
  • Date: 24th August 1999
  • Summary: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (AUGUST 24, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. TV OF PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS MARCHING THROUGH STREETS CARRYING TEACHERS UNION BANNER 0.08 2. TV HUGE BANNER READING "UNITED PUBLIC SERVICE UNION" AND DEMONSTRATORS 0.10 3. TV STRIKER WORKERS CARRYING POSTERS AND CHANTING 0.13 4. TV MARCHERS SINGING 0.18 5. SV MARCHERS WALKING PASSING ARMED SOLDIER ON DUTY 0.26 6. CU PLACARDS READING " NO 7.3 PER CENT JOB CREATION " (2 SHOTS) 0.32 7. SV PAN FROM WHITE POLICE ON HORSEBACK TO BARBED WIRE SECURITY FENCE 0.40 8. SV OF POLICE ON GUARD LOOKING OVER CROWD OF DEMONSTRATORS 0.42 9. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) COSATU (CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA TRADE UNIONS) GENERAL SECRETARY, "Cosatu sees this action as just the beginning of things to come in the public service. We would not allow even an inclination of a dictatorial government. This goverment belongs to us, we have elected it and it must respond positively to our concerns as working people". 1.15 10. TV PEOPLE IN CROWD SINGING AND DANCING, GUARDED BY POLICE 1.28 11. WIDE OF DEMONSTRATION AND PEOPLE ON UNION BUILDINGS LAWN 1.33 12. SV PEOPLE BEHIND SECURITY FENCE CARRYING MORE PLACARDS READING, "WE WILL CRIPPLE THE COUNTRY WITH STRIKE ACTION" AND "IF WE HAD WANTED TO WORK FOR PEANUTS YOU WOULD HAVE FOUND US ON A FARM" 1.44 13. SV UNION OFFICIAL HANDING THE MEMORANDUM TO A GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE 1.49 14. CU POLICEMAN SPEAKING ON RADIO 1.52 15. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF COSATU, WILLY MADISHA SAYING : "This memorandum we are handing over is going to the president of country. We are saying it must go to the president of the country as the last man in government; and what we are demanding is that as soon as possible. We want to see the long list of demands that we have put here responded to positively as soon as possible". 2.17 16. WIDE OF PEOPLE LISTENING TO SPEAKERS 2.21 17. SV MAN WITH PLACARD READING "WE RISK OUR LIVES PROTECTING CITIZENS AGAINST CRIMINAL ELEMENTS, YET WE ARE THE LOWEST PAID WORKERS" 2.25 18. CU OLD MAN IN CROWD 2.27 19. CU BLACK POLICE WATCHING 2.30 20. WIDE OF PEOPLE ON THE UNION BUILDINGS GROUNDS 2.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th September 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Reuters ID: LVA6Q8NNPQHUG4FZ1TS6GR9QR1E1
  • Story Text: South African public sector workers have gone on strike
    to protest against a government-imposed pay deal and to demand
    the state resume stalled wage talks.

    Thousands of South African public sector workers
    marched in support of pay demands on Tuesday (August 24), amid
    threats of more widespread strike action.

    About 20,000 workers gathered at the seat of the
    government in the political capital Pretoria to press their
    cause and seek the personal involvement of President Thabo
    Mbeki in the dispute.

    The 1.8 million-strong Congress of South African Trade
    Unions (COSATU), which is in alliance with Mbeki's African
    National Congress and the Communist Party, said it would back
    the public sector in its demand for a 7.3 per cent increase.

    COSATU president Willy Madisha told a cheering crowd that
    Tuesday's work disruption to persuade the government to
    retract the 6.3 per cent wage hike it had imposed on the 1.1
    million strong public sector was a hint of what could come.

    "Unless the government addresses these issues in the
    memorandum, the country faces very serious action," Madisha
    said, adding the 12 public sector unions would meet on Friday
    to decide on their course of action.

    He told Reuters private sector unions in COSATU would hold
    sympathy strikes if the government did not retract its wage
    implementation and include labour in the budget settling
    process where state personnel expenditure is decided upon.

    Tens of thousands of workers marched in other major
    cities, disrupting hospitals and schooling and government
    services.

    In Cape Town, some 15,000 people marched to parliament and
    handed a memorandum to Public Service and Administration
    Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

    Fraser-Moleketi has said the government's offer is final
    and it simply does not have the funds for the unions' demands
    that would add 700 million rand (115 million usd) to the 3.28
    billion rand already set aside for this year's wage increases.

    Mbeki's two-month-old government is committed to tight
    public spending, and political analysts see the public sector
    action, which is the largest since the end of apartheid in
    1994, as a major test of its resolve.

    Economists say pay increases in the private sector average
    around eight per cent.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register