How not to have a strike
In an unprecedented move, the members of a labour union representing the ground and cabin crew of South African Airways (SAA) downed tools and went on strike at 4am on Friday. This caused chaos with South Africa’s national airline, bringing their schedule to a grinding halt and leaving thousands of commuters stranded.
In a democracy, I defend the right of anyone to strike (only emergency and essential services are not allowed to). And I understand that SAA management were particularly inept at managing the negotiations up to the point of breakdown and the declaration of a dispute – at this time, its unclear of the exact timetable of the strike. I also understand that the workers may have exhausted every other possible line they had to get management to listen.
BUT…
An essential element of a strike that puts management under pressure is to get the public on your side. If you can get the people who pay money to the company to be sympathetic to the workers, then they will assist the strike effort by not buying goods/services for the duration of the strike. This makes a strong economic point of pain for management.
In the airline industry, the vast majority of fares are paid in advance, most well in advance. These customers would therefore not be sympathetic to the workers stopping them from travelling. Equally, given how little notice was given of the strike, travellers were not able to make alternative arrangements, and “boycott” SAA.
I was one of those caught up in the strike, and purchased a replacement ticket on 1Time, without even checking on my SAA ticket’s validity. I will now be trying to get a refund or credit voucher out of SAA. I am not sure if they will do so, and assume that many people will just not get refunds. In other words, given the cost savings (no airplanes flying, no salaries for striking workers), SAA management might actually come out better than worse after this strike. Of course, its nasty, and people were angry. But my view is that the (long term) anger was largely directed at the striking workers, not at SAA management.
Sure, the workers will probably get some of their demands, but they have drastically reduced their power base and future bargaining status, and they hurt themselves maybe even more than SAA has been hurt.
There must be cleverer ways to manage a strike.
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Amen Graeme. I was chatting to a friend who works for Nationwide – they’re pretty happy with the extra revenues coming in – who told me that the SAA staff got a letter from the CEO. In this letter he was pretty firm that he would not buckle, and that he had enough cash reserves to withstand the industrial action.
So, will the mighty SAA be brought to her knees?
I for one hope not! Why, well in approximately 6 months time we review salaries and apportion possible increases. A strike of this magnitude plants a seed in people’s minds: we can strike for more money (not a new thought). But if SAA buckle, who knows who else will be striking for a higher single digit percentage increase.