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Bring Big Brother into strike negotiations
South Africa is its own worst enemy! Why is it that just a few short years after experiencing one of the most exhilarating times in the history of this country, South Africa increasingly projects the image that it is going nowhere? For proof of this, one need look no further than the comment made by Ian Robertson, president of NAAMSA, at the end of the three week motor industry strike by NUMSA. In a press statement issued after agreement was reached between the two parties on a 9% wage increase, he said: "There are no winners."
Wow! What a profound, progressive and earth-shattering outcome to a strike that crippled the industry over a three week period and did untold damage to South Africa's image abroad. Interesting is that Business Day reported that "both the union and the employers acknowledged there were no winners after the strike". Oh great! Really great! Real breakthrough stuff this! Here we have a strike which, according to the same report in Business Day, cost the country R2-billion in lost turnover, more than R300-million in foreign currency earnings and between R60-million to R70-million in lost wages - and both parties emerged with the exciting conclusion that there were no winners. At least they agreed on that. Oh yes, nearly forgot, the government also lost around R30-million in taxes. And that's only the direct losses that accrued. Add to all this a tangible loss of credibility for South Africa as a reliable supplier in the eyes of the international business community and you can only guess at what this may cost the country in future earnings and employment potential. What a fantastic achievement. What a solid foundation on which to build national pride. It makes you want to puke!
And then, the day after agreement was reached in the motor industry, points scoring arguments began between the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Government on how successful the national anti-privatisation stay-away was. While government and business claimed it was a total failure, Cosatu claimed it was a total success. In other words, all that resulted was disagreement on how many people did or did not go to work! Oh wow! Well done guys. Hold the front page! This is the stuff great economies are made of!
Let's now take a closer look at the effect the motor industry strike had on just one player in the trucking industry. In this edition, we introduce to our readers the Hino Profia, Toyota SA Trucks' latest offering to the market. What started on a great note, ended on a sour one with the start of the strike coinciding exactly with the start of CKD production of this new model. According to Henk Maree, headman of Toyota SA Trucks, not one Profia model was produced during the course of the strike. Certainly the production backlog will no doubt be caught up on. However, what will not be recovered are the sales lost during the strike. This is money lost forever - and the amount is substantial. "When someone wants to buy a truck, it is normally for business purposes and if his needs can't immediately be fulfilled, he'll buy from someone else. Because of our being unable to meet the purchase needs of some of our clients, the strike cost us around R7,2-million at retail level - and that's on Profia models alone," says Maree.
Add to that the sales lost on certain Dyna and Hino models which were also out of stock and could have been produced and sold during the course of the strike and Maree reckons the company lost a total of around 112 unit sales. In money terms, this amounts - at retail level - to a whopping R32-million lost to the industry. Wow! Isn't this progressive stuff. Isn't this just the right stuff to get this economy growing? It's no wonder so many homeless people were seen protesting outside the convention halls of the UN World Conference Against Racialism in Durban. How many homes would R30-million in taxes build?
What really struck me about the negotiators in the motor industry strike was their firm commitment to the cause of minimising damage to the country by dedicating themselves to reaching early settlement. This was highlighted by a report I read sometime during the strike that negotiations which were supposed to continue over one weekend, were postponed to the Monday due to some members - of whatever side - not turning up. Gone fishing probably. Lucky guys. At least they could afford to buy bait. I wonder: Do the negotiators get paid during strikes? We all know that workers lost their wages. Did the negotiators - on both sides - lose theirs? If not, I reckon they should all forfeit their salaries earned during the strike - donate them to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund - in sympathy with the workers who lost their wages.
Given this sorry saga of going nowhere, here's a suggestion for future strikes. You've probably all seen snippets of Big Brother on national television. There's a house built onto the M-Net studios in Randburg where 12 people are living together for 106 days. It's all about reality TV. When this programme is over, this house should be donated to employer and employee organisations for strike negotiations. Chuck them all in there together and once they're in, they're not allowed out until agreement is reached. No newspapers, no television, no going home at night, no going nowhere until agreement is reached. And have the television cameras beam their every move and every word to millions of South Africans every second of the day and night. And hey - nou hier kom 'n ding: you can even watch them going to the loo and having a shower. And just think of this potential improvement to the current process: Viewers can vote members out of the negotiations - and the house - if they don't perform. Under these conditions, my guess is that they would quickly reach agreement.
Excuse my cynical approach to this subject. Maybe it's because I'm fed-up with this country going nowhere. At least in the Big Brother show someone is going to come out a winner - a R1-million winner. This is in stark contrast to the motor industry strike where both parties agreed there were no winners. What they failed to add was that there was a loser - a big loser. South Africa was the loser - to the tune of billions of Rand and a badly damaged image overseas. What a lousy show this was.
Patrick O'Leary
Managing Editor
FleetWatch
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