Number of days lost to strikes grows with rising inequality
Comment on this story  The number of man-days lost due to
strikes has averaged 3.4 million a year for the nearly two
decades of democracy. That is the average; the actual number has
fluctuated wildly from less than 1 million to over 12 million in
some years.  In five of the 19 years, less than 1 million man-
days were lost, while in two of those years more than 12 million
days were lost. The difference was the civil service – when 1
million or more workers go out on strike, the numbers run up
quickly.  In 2011, 5.4 million man-days were lost. This too was
largely due to municipal workers who went out on strike. There
were about 280 000 municipal workers in 2011, so the numbers
clocked up quickly.  Last year presented a different pattern. In
total, 4.5 million man-days were lost in strikes. The
distinguishing factors are:  * Most of these strikes occurred
after the normal wage bargaining season, largely stretching from
June to the end of September. By