Public sympathy for the increasingly nasty ongoing public sector strike is starting to lose the sympathy and support of the general populace if it has not done so already. Even in labor-friendly South Africa, where the union movement was a central component of the anti-Apartheid struggle and are a central component of the governing coalition, the general public is going to frown upon strikes that appear to endanger public safety or that seem indifferent to the general welfare. The striking workers are likely to reach a favorable resolution to this strike in the near future, but if they learn the wrong lessons from these strikes they may find that the next time around public sentiment could be tenuous from the outset.
