Many of the 1.3 million public workers in South Africa did not go to work on Tuesday, in an effort to push the government for a larger wage increase. Many fear that the action today signals the coming of a longer strike if the workers do not get what they want. Unions rejected a 7% salary increase last week, and are demanding a 8.6% increase and a housing allowance of 1000 rand a month. Some workers took part in demonstrations to try and push the government into wage increases. A spokesman for one of the unions said that they were not ruling out a longer general strike.
See "S African officials strike for higher pay", Simon Mundy, Financial Times, August 9, 2010