Monday, March 13, 2006
3 Strikes
I'm not one for politics...
I'm also one that realises that closing your eyes is as likely to make the problem go away as sticking your head in the sand will hide you.
Last year, disgruntled workers brought SAA (South African Airlines) to its knees by striking for a week -- depriving the company of R100 - R150 million worth of revenue. I don't know if the airline came close to shutting its doors for good, but I know there was a stage where we speculated that it may never recover from the loss.
I wondered if the brainless mass realised that if their 'demonstration of power' forced their employer to close its doors, that they would be jobless, never mind the increase that SAA refused to give its workers (initially). While striking may be a good way to make your point, did anyone at the unions tell the workers that it may be self-defeating: If SAA doesn't have the money to increase the salaries of all its employees, it doesn't have the money. Simple. It hardly runs at a loss, but to keep investors happy, a reasonable margin of profit must be maintained. While I'm sure SAA doesn't want to go bust due to a strike, it might also not want to increase the salaries of all its employees as it just might have the same outcome.
I also wonder if the masses are incited by the unions to serve the agendas of the union leaders...
Now South Africa's parastatal transport provider, Transnet, is restructuring (they call it 'transformation'), and in order to prove that they have the larger penises, the unions have called for a strike to (and I quote)
I understand that people are worried about their jobs, yet it would seem the greater part of the South African workforce have not grasped the concept of short-term loss for long-term gain. All people care about is the here and now: How they are going to feed themselves, put fuel in their car or provide for their families. I also don't advocate change (or progress) for the sake of change (or progress), but the restructuring plan Transnet's proposed can really help this country. The public transportation infrastructure is in a shocking state and something needs to be done about it...
The irony of it all is that no news broadcaster in this country reported the massive loss of revenue due to untransported goods or planes that could not leave the ground. Today, all I saw where the working class black men and women stuck without rail transport. School children without a way to school. The mob that follows their unions so blindly are hurting their own more than they're making their point right now.
I should never be allowed to rule: Some idiot must threaten to destabilise my country. I'll dare him to, and remind him that if he succeeds in knocking the economy out of whack, he and his cronies will be the first to feel the financial squeeze when corrective measures need to be taken.
I'm also one that realises that closing your eyes is as likely to make the problem go away as sticking your head in the sand will hide you.
Last year, disgruntled workers brought SAA (South African Airlines) to its knees by striking for a week -- depriving the company of R100 - R150 million worth of revenue. I don't know if the airline came close to shutting its doors for good, but I know there was a stage where we speculated that it may never recover from the loss.
I wondered if the brainless mass realised that if their 'demonstration of power' forced their employer to close its doors, that they would be jobless, never mind the increase that SAA refused to give its workers (initially). While striking may be a good way to make your point, did anyone at the unions tell the workers that it may be self-defeating: If SAA doesn't have the money to increase the salaries of all its employees, it doesn't have the money. Simple. It hardly runs at a loss, but to keep investors happy, a reasonable margin of profit must be maintained. While I'm sure SAA doesn't want to go bust due to a strike, it might also not want to increase the salaries of all its employees as it just might have the same outcome.
I also wonder if the masses are incited by the unions to serve the agendas of the union leaders...
Now South Africa's parastatal transport provider, Transnet, is restructuring (they call it 'transformation'), and in order to prove that they have the larger penises, the unions have called for a strike to (and I quote)
"...bring commuter transport, freight export lines, business units and subsidiaries, including SAA, to a complete standstill for 24 hours."
I understand that people are worried about their jobs, yet it would seem the greater part of the South African workforce have not grasped the concept of short-term loss for long-term gain. All people care about is the here and now: How they are going to feed themselves, put fuel in their car or provide for their families. I also don't advocate change (or progress) for the sake of change (or progress), but the restructuring plan Transnet's proposed can really help this country. The public transportation infrastructure is in a shocking state and something needs to be done about it...
The irony of it all is that no news broadcaster in this country reported the massive loss of revenue due to untransported goods or planes that could not leave the ground. Today, all I saw where the working class black men and women stuck without rail transport. School children without a way to school. The mob that follows their unions so blindly are hurting their own more than they're making their point right now.
I should never be allowed to rule: Some idiot must threaten to destabilise my country. I'll dare him to, and remind him that if he succeeds in knocking the economy out of whack, he and his cronies will be the first to feel the financial squeeze when corrective measures need to be taken.
