By Bizna Brand Analyst
On Monday, a Nairobi court jailed seven doctors union officials for a month for failing to call off a strike by the country’s doctors that has crippled public hospitals for 10 weeks.
Judge Hellen Wasilwa said she could not delay further the contempt of court sentence that had been suspended earlier on condition the doctors cancel their strike.
She said:
“The applicants have not demonstrated to court any new and compelling issue, or pointed out any mistake or error apparent on the record, or any sufficient cause that would warrant review of the court’s order.”
At least 5,000 doctors are on strike since December 5 for better pay and to protest the dilapidated state of Kenya’s public healthcare. It’s a sad state of affairs indeed. But the question is, are strikes really effective?
It depends on the reason but most strikes don’t work. Most people would have sympathy over striking because of massive job losses, pay cuts etc, but no-ones gonna back you for striking over a 300% pay increase unless they are going to share it with you or they really hate the government and want to see it out..
These are tough times, if the changes don’t fundamentally affect the way you do your job & are renumerated for it, or your safety then suck it up, everyone else has to! There are just too many strikes for not-so-good reasons these days. It seems to be a fallback position when people aren’t getting what they want.
There is also a growing resentment in the private sector, where unfairness & bad treatment in the workplace is rife but striking just isn’t an option. In most private industries, things are tough. No day is sacred anymore, staff (particularly management) are expected to make themselves available pretty much 24/7.
For most private sector workers, allowances are unheard of & lieu for extra hours worked is hard to obtain, sick pay has gone the way of the dinosaur & the restrictions on what time you can & can’t have off are ridiculous, added to this the pay is, in most cases, terrible & is in no way reasonable considering the amount of work required. Yet striking is just not an option. “If you don’t like it get out” is the usual response. So to some, It amuses us when the public sector people complain about having to miss out on a certain allowance or not getting all the money they were promised even when they have been offered a good chunk of it.
Strikes do not work as they only hurt one person or another. Practically everyone in the country is taking hits on the disastrous state of our economy. People have to realize that there is no option but to bare it until we get stronger. Striking will only harm the economy further and make recovery harder.
The opposition is not interested in today, next year or even in our lifetimes they are only interested in gaining power through social upheaval. That’s why they strongly support the strike.
I have never understood unions or what they achieve by striking. If a company cannot afford to pay a 3% pay increase but offer 1.5% increase, unions cause an uproar, then a strike occurs. The company/government still cannot afford the 3% so the only option is to reduce the workforce to reduce cash output and be in a financial position to offer higher than 1.5% – bad example but it’s a no brainer, if an organisation offers to save jobs but without increase in wages for its workforce, they don’t just produce magic beans when the union gets involved. striking will always no matter what be detrimental for employees.
Most people will have sympathy with the strikers if the grievance is genuine. But as soon as the strikes start and the public is inconvenienced, then that sympathy rapidly evaporates. The parties negotiating might reach a good-for-all agreement sometimes but there is always a third party that suffers badly. How many people have died as a result of the doctors strike?
I rest my case.
