Cosatu striking statistics

By Odette Ismail
24 September 2006

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has acknowledged reports by the Reserve Bank that the number of working days lost from strikes has increased from about 700,000 in the first half of last year to 1, 6 million in the first half of this year.

The strikes mainly organised by Cosatu-affiliated trade unions has resulted in workers becoming restless, especially those who get paid the least. Workers are starting to feel that they are being marginalised and left with an ‘economic’ boom that does not benefit them at all.


National Spokesperson of Cosatu Patrick Craven said that workers who see their employers getting bigger salaries are more determined to get their bigger share in the profits made.

Cosatu has denied any allegations of them focussing too much on political issues and says in no way do political campaigns receive top priority and that it is not at the expense of the demands on their basic “bread-and-butter” demands.