South Africa On Strike. Plus, A Little Boy Needs Prayers

South Africa is in the grips of a national government worker strike, the first of its kind since apartheid ended in 1994. There have been smaller actions but nothing to this degree. On June 1st, about 10 unions that represent various groups of government workers (national and provincial, but not municipal) "downed tools" and stayed home. These unions total about 1,100,000 people across all 9 provinces. They are fighting for a 12% wage increase plus improvements in health benefits and other perqs. Government initially offered 6%, then moved to 6 1/2% about a week ago. Although the unions have since lowered their target to 10%, it is not a unanimous position and some unions are still pushing 12%.

Teachers are the most vocal group in the strike and the largest segment, about 300,000 people. Health care workers are the next largest (a couple hundred thousand) followed by general laborers and skilled workers.

Besides being vocal, teachers have also been the most violent so far, at least according to news reports. Some teachers disrupted a testing session with high school students last week, tearing up exams and answer books and even assaulting one student. (This is mid-year exam time for students, who must take tests both for graduation and for university entrance applications.) The striking teachers have been threatening those teachers who are still going to school, those that feel students need an education.

Health care workers have also been in the news a lot. Health care is classified by Government as an essential service, so health care workers are not to participate in strike actions. If they do it is illegal and they can be arrested. Of course, not everyone follows the rules so many hospitals and clinics around the country have been operating with skeleton staffs, cutting back services and closing wards. Some hospitals in the Kwazulu-Natal province have brought in Army medics and nurses to provide care, and doctors are cleaning floors and doing orderly duty.

At Brown's Farm clinic, everyone has been coming to work even with threats floating around. It's getting a bit more real, though. I wasn't working there today, but everyone left very early because some of the community leaders told the staff that protesters were coming. They were even told to take alternate routes home so that they wouldn't be targeted. Zethu told me to skip coming tomorrow just to be safe. A couple people told me that I'd be at risk because I'm not a known member of the community and would be thought to be a doctor or something. I'm fine with staying away, because I have a rule about making myself a victim. I do feel bad for Tami and Ntombikayise, though, because they've had to do a day's work in a could hours and I know they could use the help.

When you consider the reasons for the strike, it's hard not to sympathize with the workers. Most really are underpaid. Experienced teachers make about R8,000 a month ($1,100), and labourers are probably around R6,000 ($850). And that's before taxes and deductions, which run around 25-30%. Now, 10-12% won't make a huge difference, but an extra R800 buys a lot of groceries here, and will help keep up with inflation (now at about 6.5%).

The negotiations are on hold for a day and will resume Friday. Negotiation facilitators have recommended a settlement at 7 1/4% but no one is agreeing to that. I hope they reach an settlement soon, because I think if it goes into next week it's going to get very ugly. Some of the unions not striking went out on a sympathy strike today, and if that continues the country will come to a screeching halt very quickly. Needless to say, South Africa cannot afford to be unproductive for any length of time, even a day.

Prayer request: One of the workers at the Centre, Xolani Gwangwa, has a sweet 2-year old boy named Sinako (snah-koh). Last Saturday evening he pulled a kettle of boiling water off a table and onto his face and neck. He was burned pretty badly, enough so that he had to have grafts on his cheeks and chin this afternoon. I saw him tonight at the hospital and he looks good. Fortunately, he should come through with only moderate scarring or less. But in any case, he has a long recovery ahead. I know Xolani and his wife would appreciate any support people give them.

I've learned a lot about education this week. I'll pull my notes together and write about that soon. Stay tuned.