Selfish strikers

Have the people currently striking at Transnet thought of the impact of their strike on the rest of South Africa.  My dad is of the opinion that there could be up to one person losing their job in another industry for every person that is striking at Transnet.

How does he get to this?

Lets look at the fruit exporting business.  They are currently in peak season for a number of different fruit, and cannot ship any of their product out of the country.  That means that the industry as a whole will not make their profits, and may make a loss if they have to dump all of their produce on local markets.  Who suffers?  The farmers, and the workers that they now cannot afford to pay anymore.   Their estimate is that they will lose R1billion equalling 30,000 jobs.

Economists say that the economy will probably lose R15billion therefore some 450,000 possible jobs will be lost, taking the scenario of the fruit producers. Take 10% of that and it amounts to some 45,000 additional jobs that may be lost. If this is not theft legalised what is it then?

The Coal industry, probably the largest Transnet customer.  Their system is normally running at capacity, which means that for the 2 weeks lost so far, they’ve lost 2 weeks in production, because they cannot cath up on lost shipping, there is no more capacity available.  Who suffers?  The coal miners, the workers.

So please, fire your greedy union leaders and accept the 11% offer, it is more than what most of us got.

Why do I say the union leaders are greedy?  Remember that the union takes a percentage cut of your salary, 4% over 100,000 workers is a lot of money.  If they get you 15%, a figure which is probably their upper target, I’ll put money on them getting paid “super” performance bonuses, out of the extra money that you’re now contributing to the union’s coffers.

Update: According to Business Report, government wants to declare the fruit farming issue a disaster.  I’ve included some figures above, all in italics.