Workers may shy away from strikes

| Thursday April 24, 2014 11:39

Let us look at the factors which should inform business strategies of public service labour unions.  We do this to understand the kind of operational and negotiating strategies which can be drawn to address the needs of the working class.

Batswana are traditionally a dialogue conflict-resolving nation.  Cultural values render group militancy unpalatable to mos t people.  Consequently fiery and politicised rhetoric and cabinet bashing do not exert the required pressure on the government.  Workers will always shy away from strikes for fear of possible violence. Those who brave it cannot sustain the hardships which accompany industrial militancy.  This is the cultural characteristic of Batswana and unions have to plan bearing this in mind.

The population of Botswana is small. All over the world pressure groups which resort to demonstrations rely on numbers because that is a game of numbers. In a population as small as ours, it is extremely difficult to mobilise the size of a protesting group large enough to scare authorities.  Militancy is a world-wide high pressure instrument for labour unions.  Our public service labour unions should wake up to the fact that our culture is different and they need to think 100 times before talking about strikes.  Labour strategists don’t seem to know this.

Historically this is a peaceful nation.  There are many commentators who describe South Africa as a violent nation.  Whether such a view is correct is immaterial. The truth is that wage negotiations and other social conflicts in that country involve some form of violence and sustained boycotts.  Don’t try it here because people detest disorder.  They are not fearful but just smart enough to pursue the civilised route of conflict resolution.  South Africa has a violent past.  Think of the settlers against blacks, the Shaka era, English and the Boers, Mfecane wars, apartheid era and the pre-independence black on black violence.  Therefore their solutions cannot be copied from here.

Prolonged industrial action in South Africa provokes community responses with disorderly tones. That increases the pressure on authorities to find solutions.  For reasons which I have explained above, our public landscape is such that communities would not add pressure on authorities to strike deals with unions if services are withheld for long spells.

Putting high pressure on authorities in the course of wage negotiations is provided for in the constitution.  However it cannot be done on the basis of what prevails elsewhere.  Strategic thinking must apply to formulate Botswana solutions for Botswana situations. Benchmarking is a far sighted planning tool but is disastrous wherever emotions have the better of reason.

This country has experiences which work against reasonable salary increments in the public service.  The history of the public service since independence shows that increments have not only been hard to get, but also minimal where they occurred.  The significance of this is that any cabinet minister is more likely to resist calls for salary increments than respond positively.  It is a pattern and breaking it is not easy.  I can go so far as to say that the cabinet would be shocked if the minister responsible were to recommend a two digit increment.  Don’t think that they are oppressive.  This is a natural evolution of our economy, state and labour relationship.  In a bureaucracy, reference to past practices carries extraordinary influence in decision making.  Labour unions should factor these tendencies into negotiation strategies.

Our civil service is too large for a population of two million.  The absence of full economic diversification forces the state to create employment through parastatals and a pregnant civil service. This is good as a social touch in economic planning.  Unfortunately it comes with a salary bill that is rather too high for two million people.  The bad news for unions is that when the cabinet looks at the current civil service salary bill and considers increasing it further there is a heightened feeling of alarm that requires shock absorbers.  Its difficult to avoid feeling pity for them because it is not a situation of their own making.

The country’s GDP has been growing steadily over the years.  The reluctance of government to increase salaries substantially in the past can partly be attributed to the small GDP and problems of prioritisation.  A small GDP gives government little room for a fair budget allocation especially if there is still a heavy demand for development spending. Prioritisation is always an evil word in politics. The system of government relies on politicians and economic advisors.  In developed countries, civil groups and labour unions have effective lobbying mechanisms.  Africa is far from reaching such literacy levels and civics.  Understanding among the population and democratisation still has a long way to go.  Africa’s tendency to be war-prone and the absence of good governance in many countries, mean that Botswana has reason to maintain a strongly armed force just in case.

Sandy Milanda (Independent Consultant)

to be continued next week