Winning strikes - A guide to strike action

In recent years, CWIU has been amongst the top six unions involved in strike activity in South Africa. The militancy of our members dates back to the early seventies when it was often impossible to get union recognition without strike action. Over and above plant strikes, the membership of CWIU have a rich history of participating in political mass actions such as the stayaway in the Transvaal in November 1984 against conditions in the schools and townships, and against the LRA Amendments in the late 1980's, and in 1990 and 1991 against VAT. Today, when the bosses are talking about retrenchment, rationalisation, inflation, privatisation, deregulation and productivity, the strike remains one of the most powerful and favoured weapons of the organised labour movement. But not all strikes have been successful. A number of heroic battles fought by workers were defeated. At times workers go on strikes without properly preparing. At other times the issue that they are fighting can be bettter resolved through other avenues of struggle. This booklet is a manual for strike action. We hope that it will assist workers in taking effective and planned action to avoid some of the pitfalls of the past. The booklet outlines some of the key questions that workers should answer before going on strike. It also discusses the most important elements of strike organisation