SAA strikers will be the ultimate losers

Unions threatening “the mother of all strikes” at South African Airways to prevent cost-cutting retrenchments is akin to a condemned person correcting the bad aim of the firing squad.

A strike will cripple the airline – but it could well kill it off in the process, along with the jobs of all 5,000 SAA employees, not just the 944 facing the axe.

If the national flag carrier does manage to recover from that death spiral, the reality is that the strikers will be the losers.

It is estimated that they will lose 0.4% of their income for every day they are not at work and, even if they don’t lose their jobs, it could cost them months, or even years, to recover from their financial loss.

That is the nub of the economic question facing South Africa: Do we (taxpayers) continue to subsidise an elite group of people (those who have jobs in a sea of unemployment) when that money could be spent stimulating business and creating more jobs?

Under the ANC, sadly, that question will not be asked, never mind answered.

An injury to one is an injury to all in the tripartite alliance, so socialism appears to be here to stay.

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