Industrial Action free essay sample

This assignment will be based on Industrial Action within SA over the past few years. It will begin by a brief explanation of what Industrial Action is from a legal point of view, the context of industrial action over the past five years or so, the contribution factors to industrial action and the increase in violence during the industrial action.With reference from a UNISA handle, industrial action is accepted worldwide as an integral part of collective bargaining. It can take different forms; these include a strike, a lock-out, picketing, a product boycott and protest action. Barker amp; Holtzhausen: define the term industrial action as meaning â€Å"action by unions, employees or employers, to pressurize the other party in the furtherance of an industrial dispute†. They go on to state it usually refers to strikes and lock-outs but could also include picketing, product boycotts, sit-ins, go-slow strikes and other actions which disrupt the productive process. 2. In some nations like Korea, South Africa, France and Spain where strike action helped democratize society; general strikes are still being used for mass mobilization and political protest. * Labour’s strike effectiveness and organizational strength have long been connected. Throughout history, work stoppages have been used for economic and political purposes, to alter the balance of power between labour and capital within single workplaces, entire industries, or nationwide. Strikes have won shorter hours and safer conditions, through legislation or contract negotiation. Theyve fostered new forms of worker organization such as industrial unions, that were badly needed because of corporate restructuring and the reorganization of production. Strikes have acted as incubators for class consciousness, rank-and-file leadership development, and political activism. In other countries, strikers have challenged and changed governments that were dictatorial and oppressive. South Africa has just been degraded on its security rating from a BBB+ to a triple BBB and the impact this will have on the economy is not a positive one. The rating loss can cost our economy about R8 billion in interests a year – twice the amount of the cost of the toll roads. Someone will have to pay, and it’s us, the ordinary people, who will have to foot the bill – further eroding our ability to save money. It’s the union’s undisciplined labour actions that largely cause the degrading of the security rating of our economy. Unions and strikers don’t realise their actions also have a macro-economic impact that affects everyone around us. At a micro level we should realise that all our actions will also have an impact on our personal financial position. This increased cost of finance will prevent us from being able to save sufficiently for other needs. The increased cost of country debt will increase taxes and other duties, and prevent us from saving. * Strikes in SA over the years have grown and also gotten out of hand and causing our country to lose foreign investors. There has been an increase in violence causing facility damages (e. g: roads, shops etc), in some instances it would affect us importing foreign goods or even exporting our goods to foreign countries. Lives of people has been lost, families have been affected by this. We have had the public sector getting involved in industrial action even though prohibited from this. It’s like sectors in SA believe that in order to get what you demand we need industrial actions. The trigger for most strikes has been wages and wage differentials, where employers seek a wage increase. Unions communicate this to employers then this leads to disputes which further on can be driven/lead to strikes. * Unions and employers relying on 3rd parties to negotiate on their behalf, sometimes these negotiators / facilitators don’t even have the right skills at hand or might not have any personal understanding or knowledge of the interest of the parties in dispute. Bargaining in bad faith not taking economic circumstances into mind. Personal political issues, some unions/ workers use strikes as a mean to direct political action in the absence of any other means of legitimate expression. * Bad working conditions. * Partied being dishonest about what they really want and having the perception that they can just receive what they demand without taking other factors into consideration.   There’s a song â€Å"Money makes the world go round† indeed it does, money and other factors has lead to high industrial actions which further lead to increased violence. Looking at the Marikana Massacres: Article by James North The Marikana strike in South Africa is finally over, but the legacy of the massacre that took place there two months ago may prove to be as enduring as that of the Sharpeville massacre more than four decades earlier. On March 21, 1960, the South African police fired into a crowd of demonstrators protesting the apartheid pas s laws at Sharpeville, killing sixty-nine. On August 16, 2012, the South African police fired at a crowd of striking wildcat miners at Marikana, killing thirty-four. Not surprisingly by, many in South Africa have labelled Marikana the Sharpeville of our times, all the more devastating because the fingers pulling those triggers were controlled by a government voted into power to realize the aspirations of the majority rather than to shoot them down. * Looking at the truck driver strike: Article from News 24 Johannesburg Officials said on Wednesday that striking truck drivers set alight vehicles and intimidated a driver in separate incidents in Cape Town and Durban on Wednesday. Three people were hospitalised, said eThekwini metro police spokesperson Eugene Msomi. A driver and his two assistants were injured when they tried to get away from striking drivers on Wednesday afternoon, said Msomi. * Farm Worker strike: the farm workers also demanded a wage increase of about a R150 a day, this lead to violence of street being vandalised and some of them even looted stores for food.   Industrial actions over the past years have grown out of control. Not only ffecting employers and employees negatively but affecting the entire countries economy in terms of our macro and micro economy. This resulted in increasing violence (deaths, vandalising, looting, job loss etc). In most cases it appeared to be for wage increase but if we took a greater look into industrial action we can pick up that there’s whole lot of other factors contributing to industrial action. What’s amazing is that industrial action doesn’t always provide us with what we expected instead we stand to lose more. What are we as an economy doing to rectify this is like a rhetorical question amongst ourselves? It seems to be that the only action at hand is to bury the dead and move on, quickly to the next fiasco.