The National Unions Metal Workers South Africa or NUMSA for short is still creating havoc as the strike is now heading into it's third week. The initial demand was for a 6% salary increase which was offered last week. The Union rejected this offer increasing their demands stating they wanted a minimum of 8% now back paid until 2019. Crazy numbers when you consider how delicate the economy is right now.
You can see the desperation as this is blackmail and there is no other word for this behavior. Workers who are attending work and not joining in the strike who aren't even part of the Steel Workers Union are now being attacked. Thing shave turned ugly and this is how things always play out here.
There is no protection for the civilians as the police always disappear never to be seen again until things quieten down. It is true that private security companies are the ones policing and protecting these days. I hate to imagine how bad things would be if they were not around.
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This was happening tonight at a steel company.
The looting and violence is not as bad as what we all witnessed 4 months ago but there is property and businesses being damaged. Many are more concerned not about the physical damage being caused but the long term damage as many of these strikers will soon find out. This strike is costing companies Millions in lost production daily and that will only result in job losses.
Throw in power outages (downtime) plus escalating costs of steel and labor and suddenly you don't have a business anymore.
The 8% with back pay and benefits would force companies to retrench resulting in an estimated 20% losing their jobs. The companies keeping the work force on is not an option as they are pricing themselves out of the market. Customers will only pay so much for an item before they look elsewhere and that is what has been happening and will always happen.
Cheap Labor is no longer cheap even when the workers think they deserve more as they are only worth x amount to a company before they are no longer viable. A company in a small country town can't pay the same workers rates as they do in a metropolitan area and that is just business logic.
These days you don't phone the police as they are a waste of time, but message your security company for assistance.
After the 18 months we have witnessed with lockdowns and rioting and now this strike I am surprised there are any businesses left. This week they blockaded roads leading into industrial areas attacking anyone going in or out with hand held weapons. It doesn't matter if you are not part of their Union and may have some other type of business like dry cleaning they just don't care.
Our business has been rather quiet up till now mainly due to companies not having money. We are after prime contracts and nothing else until this economic blip is resolved. There is definitely a recession happening or about to happen as things are just that bad. Not surprisingly many have already left the country for greener pastures and wonder sometimes why I am still here. The business is good if allowed to operate properly and need one last throw of the dice to be able to have other choices.