Yes, of course Botswana’s public sector strike hurts the poor disproportionately. In Botswana, as in just about everywhere, the poor outnumber everyone else. But to assert that public sector strikes harm them disproportionately is to not be curious as to whether or not decisions by those against whom the public sector strikers are striking harm the poor even more disproportionately. In other words, it is easy to take a static view of labor. But the reality is that those workers are not striking against society or against the poor, and whatever short-term harm the strikers might do is almost certainly compounded by those who employ and try to exploit those who strike.
