STRIKE!!!!

One of the more interesting experiences I’ve had in South Africa occurred continuously over the last month or so. Interesting not in the form of exciting- in fact I was bored to the extent where I wanted to bang my head against the wall- but rather interesting in the “wow, that would never happen at home!” sort of way. The experience I am talking about was the huge public servant strike. For about a month prior to the strike the unions and government were in a stalemate. The workers union, COSATU, and all of the unions affiliated to it were demanding a 12% increase in wages for all public servants including nurses, police officers, doctors, court officials, teachers and many others that I have now forgotten. The government balked at the 12% and instead offered 6%. Now, having worked in the schools in SA for two years and seeing just exactly what many of the teachers here consider “work,” I thought that the 6% the government offered was more than reasonable. In fact, it was extremely generous! If I had my way, a number of teachers would have their salaries removed permanently (I mean come on, they think that they can sit in the staff room drinking tea all day without doing their job of teaching the children and still deserve a nice paycheck at the end of the month?) and the money then given to the teachers who really deserve it. But, I do not think that the government would have been interested in listening to my views of the situation, nor any of my teachers for that matter. The negotiations soon became a matter of pride, and then degenerated. Neither side wanted to back down and the unions soon declared a strike if the government did not cave to their wishes. The government stuck to its 6% and a nation-wide public servant strike began on the 1st of June.

In the US, there are occasional strikes- normally by small company employees and the like. The workers strike for a few weeks, but it does not affect the entire country. I have never, ever been in a situation where an entire country goes on strike! And that is what it seemed like. For the four weeks the strike lasted (That’s right, everybody- FOUR WEEKS!) nurses refused to go to work, courts did not operating, and probably about 80% of SAs schools closed or worked with a minimal staff. All three of my schools closed, as were the schools of all of SAs Education PCVs. So, suddenly out of work with an impromptu holiday (and no way of knowing how long it would last) I suddenly had a great deal of time on my hands. I must admit, I really enjoyed not having to go to school. I got to sleep late (well, I cannot sleep past 7:30 anymore, but I did not have to wake up via alarm clock!) and to enjoy a leisure day spent reading, walking, or whatever else suited my fancy. The only problem was that all my host sisters and my host mother (a vice-principal) also had nowhere to go and nothing to do. I love my host sisters, but spending all day with them became too much after day 4. Especially when during the middle of Week One Lethabo started putting one song on repeat on her stereo and letting it play ALL DAY LONG. At the end of Week One I counted, in one day, how many times we listened to it. The 32nd time it played I pulled big sister rank and turned the CD off. That did not go down very well with Lethabo, but I think she would have preferred having the music stop to me murdering her, which I was a hair breadth away from doing. People undergoing torture cannot be responsible for their actions. By the middle of Week Two I ascertained that I was going crazy, and by Week Three I decided to leave the village and head to Pretoria. I had to pick up my sister at the airport at the end of the week, so I decided to start my real vacation a bit early.

By the end of Week Four, everyone was tired of the strike. The news tired of covering the protesting workers, and everyone tired of hearing about them. After four weeks, the workers themselves seemed ready to call it quits- demonstrations every day just get old (and I think they fully realized that striking workers are not paid workers and they were losing a lot of money every day the strike continued). So, the unions and the government finally worked out a deal: all public servants would receive a 7.5% wage increase plus medical and pension benefits. Finally, everyone returned to work. Now, I have to admit that despite the ridiculous extent that the strike was taken, I was pretty impressed by the stubbornness displayed by all players. Honestly, no one expected the strike to last more than a few days, yet everyone stuck to their guns for a month. It was interesting to see, as it was an event that I would never see at home.