[Oops! My bad! The Botswanans are asking for a sixteen percent raise, not fifteen as stated below. Time to see the optometrist for me. Consequently, the math is inaccurate but it's close enough and I'm lazy enough to leave it as it is. My apologies.]
In all the excitement over events in the ME and now Spain, what's been overlooked is the impressive determination of the public sector employees of Botswana. This epic conflict is quickly turning into one of labor's greatest clashes. As you can read below, the government and their sponsors in international capital are trying every means at their disposal to quash the strike. So far, heroically, the civil servants of Botswana have been steadfast.
The issue is, as usual, money. The workers are asking for a fifteen percent wage increase over two years. According to indexmundi.com, the rate of inflation in Botswana last year was 7.1 percent. It was a point higher the year previous, and it has never been lower than it is now in the last eight years, but has been as high as twelve percent. Consequently, assuming the best and the inflation rate remains where it is now, were they to get their fifteen percent, their incomes would outpace inflation in the first year and roughly match it in the second. At seven percent annually, the cost of living will be 14.7 percent higher after two years. So at the end of the contract their actual buying power will be the same as when the contract went into effect. They will not have advanced (save again for that first year when their pay would outstrip the estimated rate of inflation), but they will have held their ground. If the rate of inflation ends up being higher, which is quite possible if viewed by long-term trends, then they will actually have lost ground.
The government has offered three percent, which is nothing less than insulting. At that rate, prices will have increased by nearly fifteen percent, and real wages only by only six. In real terms, this would represent a seven or eight percent decrease in buying power at the end of the contract. And again, this is the best case scenario. It is quite likely inflation will be higher.
And so it goes. de Beers, (which was bought by the Rothschild family in the 1800s who still co-own the company through their firm Anglo-American with the Oppenheimers and the government of Botswana) has announced that they have come through the recession quite nicely and are poised to reach full production by 2012. Additionally, de Beers is happy to report that they have found new deposits of diamonds in Botswana. The future is bright for the diamond industry, particularly in Botswana.[1]
And the government is offering public employees a pay increase which is four percent less than lowest-ever-lately rate of inflation!
Below are some articles which I found helpful.
Botswana Wage Talks End Without Accord, Strike Continues
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-20/botswana-wage-talks-end-without-accord-strike-continues-1-.html
Botswana Police report on the strike:
Meanwhile, four striking workers in Tshane and eight striking workers in Gantsi have been arrested by police for blocking roads with stones and debris. They are likely to taken before court after completion of investigations.
‘Though in some of these incidents some people suffered minor injuries, no deaths or serious injuries were recorded,’ states the report.
http://gazettebw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9703:botswana-police-report-on-public-disturbances-due-to-strike&catid=18:headlines&Itemid=2
Who is who in Govt union salary talks.
http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=6&aid=1003&dir=2011/May/Friday20
Govt. officials hit out at striking medical staff
http://www.thevoicebw.com/2011/05/07/immoral-illegal/
BOFEPUSU shocked by the appointment of William Patrick Vergeer as a judge
The umbrella public service union, BOFEPUSU, says it is shocked by the appointment of William Patrick Vergeer as a judge at the industrial court. It says Vergeer was part of the legal team that represents DPSM in the current court case. The trade union also Vergeer was a partner at the President and BDP’s law firm, which it says it has now become principal legal advisors to the government.
http://gabzfmnews.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/bofepusu-shocked-by-the-appointment-of-william-patrick-vergeer-as-a-judge/
The government attempts to de-register BOFEPUSU, the federation of civil servants' unions.
http://www.gazettebw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8814:high-court-buries-bofepusu-&catid=19:northcast&Itemid=2
[1]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-11/anglo-unit-de-beers-says-annual-sales-climb-57-as-diamond-demand-recovers.html
