beyondbrics

Is South Africa celebrating its success in organising the World Cup 2010 too early?

After all, there is still more than a week to go and trades unions acting for workers of Eskom, the state-owned energy company, are threatening to strike, potentially – it would seem – plunging the country into chaos next week ahead of semi-final and final matches.

Brian Dames, the company’s chief executive, said Thursday that a “a strike will have a national impact, damage the economy and affect the World Cup.”

The company’s offer of an 8.5 per cent pay increase and R1,000 ($130) housing allowance has been rejected by two unions – the National Union of Mineworkers (which represents 16,000 of the company’s 37,000 workers) and the National Union of Metalworkers. A third union – Solidarity – is seeking more talks.

There are a number of reasons, however, to expect a negotiated solution.

First, the two sides are not that far apart. The unions want a 9 per cent rise and a bigger housing allowance. A strike could well be declared illegal (although there is some dispute about this) under essential service legislation.

More importantly, the governing African National Congress – which is allied with the trades union movement – is confident it can sort things out. “It is the normal course of interactions between trades union representatives and their employers,” Baleka Mbete, the party’s national chairperson, told journalists today.

“We hope that it should not get to a point where there has to be a strike. We don’t think it will happen.”

If things aren’t sorted out by the weekend, expect party heavyweights to get involved.