By: Hilma Tuukondjele
Government can for now hold its breath as civil servants’ ballots will be counted to determine whether they have opted to down their tools or not.
Voting for or against strike action commenced this week on Thursday and ended Friday with various voting stations recording high numbers of public sector workers thronging to cast their ballots.
However, if the outcome is in favor for strike action, journalist, Daniel Nadunya, has cautioned that civil servants must brace for a long-drawn-out fight in which government might stick to its guns.
Workers will also have to deal with the financial predicament of “no-work-no-pay”, a weapon which hit workers at NBC in their previous battle with government over salary increments.
Nadunya advised the workers that he does not see the government reacting, getting to speed and solving the issue of salary increment for civil servants in the first round of a possible strike commencing.
“It all depends on what the servants are prepared to do and how far they are willing to go, from the experience of NBC we went as far as one month with no luck,” he said
However, the journalist expressed that he doesn’t see the government coming to the table anytime soon and that it may require a lot of effort and unity from civil servants if they are to effectively pressure GRN.
“I don’t know if the civil servants are willing to go further with the issue of ‘no work no pay’ and of course having seen how NBC employees have suffered, I don’t know how far they are willing to go but it’s worth a try, ” he added.
In the event of a strike, the centre of such a battle would be the constitutional rights of Namibians’ access to resources like education and health, which in this case would be restricted.
The Namibia National Workers Union (NNWU) leader, Job Muniaro, has in the meantime urged that workers must opt for a strike, further saying that he was happy with the voting progress.
Muniaro said that he’s very happy with the progress made so far on the ballot and is agitating for strike.
“It’s high time that the workers fight for their rights, ” he said.
Political activist, Rosa Namises, has also cautioned that the Namibia Public Workers Union (NAPWU) must take lessons from their failed NBC strike if they are to successfully arm-twist government to the negotiation table.
Namises, who has openly come out in support of the strike, government was being disingenuous in submitting that there was no money for civil servants without seeking for means and ways of getting funds to fund the workers’ demands.
“The government should know that these things are happening and it is very important and very serious for our government to see that these kinds of strikes are coming up and they have responsibilities to act like the employers of the civil servants,” she said.
