- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: PUBLIC SERVICE WORKERS STRIKE OVER PAY CLAIM.
- Date: 29th July 1999
- Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (JULY 29, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 2. MV/PAN: STRIKERS HOLDING POSTERS AND CHANTING 0.07 3. CU: POSTER WHICH READS (English) 'We need 10 percent now'/ CU STRIKER (2 SHOTS) 0.14 4. MV: M/S GOVERNMENT BUILDING WHERE WORKERS ARE PICKETING 0.17 5. CU/TILT/CU: STRIKER HOLDING POSTER AND PAN UP TO STRIKE SPOKESMAN JUSTICE PHETLA ADDRESSING STRIKERS (2 SHOTS) 0.26 6. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JUSTICE PHETLA,STRIKE SPOKESMAN SAYING: "When we say we want 10percent we mean it and we're not going to go back." 0.33 7. GV: CROWD RESPONDING WITH CHEERS 0.36 8. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHETLA SAYING: "To Comrade Mbeki, we're saying at the moment the workers have spoken." 0.43 9. MV: CHANTING STRIKERS 0.47 10. MCU/CU: ULULATING STRIKERS/ POSTER/ STRIKERS CHANTING/ STRIKER HOLDING A POSTER AND SINGING (3 SHOTS0 1.03 11. CU/PAN: STRIKERS CHANTING: "Viva, awethu, awethu." ("Power to the people") 1.11 12. MV: MORE STRIKERS DANCING AND SINGING (4 SHOTS) 1.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th August 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
- Reuters ID: LVAD29EWQILK9IX69MNCI3HV6DDM
- Story Text: Hundreds of thousands of South Africa's public service
workers have gone on strike in the first major challenge to
President Thabo Mbeki's six-week old government.
The strike in Johannesburg on Thursday (July 29) was
the biggest public sector stoppage since the end of apartheid.
Union officials said they thought the action was a great
success and that early indications were that all the 200,000
teachers affiliated to participating unions were on strike.
There were more demonstrations at hospitals in major
centres.
The unions also said up to half the country's 1.1 million
public service workers could become involved.
The strike was called by three major public service unions
after the government refused to increase its 3.2 billion
rand-a-year (520 million US dollars) offer of wage increases
between 6.2 and 6.8 percent for various categories of public
servants.
Strike spokesman Justice Phetla was cheered when he said
the union workers' should be taken seriously and that they
wanted to test President Thabo Mbeki's new government.
"When we say we want 10 percent we mean it and we're not
going to go back," Phetla said," to Comrade Mbeki, we're
saying at the moment the workers have spoken."
However National Education, Health and Allied Workers
Union (NEHAWU) deputy general secretary David Makhura has said
the unions would accept rises equivalent to the country's
current 7.3 percent inflation rate.
Unions and the government appeared to interpret a
prohibition on strikes by emergency service workers
differently on Thursday, but union officials said crucial
health services would be maintained.
Security forces said there were no reports during the
morning of severe disruptions to policing or of any violent
incidents.
A union spokesman said, however, that officials were in
talks with the government on Thursday to secure the right of
police to participate in limited strike action.
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