No Sympathy

When will the trade unions learn that there are limits to what they can and cannot do?
Whenever there has been a strike organised by any of the big unions in South Africa, it turned ugly.
Whether it was torching buses, trashing the streets or killing co-workers, it seems that the unions does not realise what they are doing by their behaviour.
They are slowly eroding all the trust and goodwill that they managed to build up.
Eventually their rights will be reduced or limited and the workers who they are supposedly protecting or promoting will be worse off than before.
By not controlling the crowds that they organise, they are making themselves responsible for the crimes committed during their demonstrations; simply because people as a crowd will respond to whomever is inciting them.
The unions can claim a lack of responsibilty and try to distance themselves from the actions perpetrated, but they are still the organisers and originators. Ultimately it comes back to them.
And it will result in a lack of sympathy for the workers and leave them vulnerable in the end.

Strikers cause chaos in Pretoria city centre

March 24 2006 at 07:10AM
By Barry Bateman, Cornelia du Plooy and Janine Du Plessis

Chaos erupted in and around Pretoria city centre on Thursday when marauding security guards ran amok through the streets terrorising motorists and on-duty guards, vandalising property and torching a security patrol vehicle.
The SAPS and the Tshwane Metro Police, outnumbered and not in control, were left helpless as more than 10 000 strikers, wielding sticks, tree branches and other weapons, went on the rampage.
At least 10 people were injured when police used stun-grenades and fired rubber bullets at the mob outside the Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Sira) building in Belvedere Street, Arcadia.
Lawless: Striking security guards try to tip a patrol car on Schoeman Street in Pretoria.

Photo: Barry Bateman, Pretoria News