Strikes are the last resort and the only powerful weapon in the armoury of the sellers of labour. And it is only when the aptly labelled gatvol factor comes into play that frustrated workers down tools and take to the streets and picket lines.
These facts should be borne in mind as the current levels of industrial anger rise. It should also not be forgotten that protesting workers, be they doctors, nurses or manual labourers, often take action as much in the interests of the community at large as in the size of their pay packets.
But the size of pay packets has a bearing on the wellbeing of many communities. As the labour movement notes, employed workers comprise the country's major, unofficial, social welfare net, each worker supporting, on average, eight dependants.
Now, with capital in crisis and unemployment growing, there are predictable demands from employers to hold back wage rises, scrap minimum wage agreements and even weaken or ignore unions. Such attitudes add to the levels of worker frustration and can result in bitter eruptions.
It is then that the reaction of workers - unionised or not - makes headline news. However, before this point is reached, there are often months and even years of negotiations, pleas and sometimes innovative pressure that receives little or no publicity.
This week, for example, the Transport and Omnibus Workers Union (Towu) drafted a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about coach operator SA Roadlink. It is a desperate attempt by the union to promote greater public pressure after years of frustration and official tardiness.
"We are doing this for the drivers, the passengers and the public at large, because all our previous protests have come to nothing," says Towu general secretary Gary Wilson. He and other union members are convinced that SA Roadlink - in which unions are not recognised - has "some very high-level protection".
They point out that in a series of accidents over the past three years 31 people have been killed. The complaint to the ASA joins others to the "usual official channels" following the accident last week involving an SA Roadlink coach at Beaufort West in which eight people died.
According to local traffic chief Willie van Rooyen, a second coach sent to pick up survivors had to be taken off the road because its brakes and headlights were faulty, the tyres did not have sufficient tread and the driver's licence had expired. The crashed coach also did not have a permit to travel on that road.
"Over the years we have pointed out such things to the labour department and all the official channels, but nothing gets done," says Wilson. Company drivers confirm that they are paid on a per trip basis, which encourages them to drive solo and for longer hours.
However, the company's website proclaims: "All coaches are checked for roadworthiness before each trip. Each coach undergoes mandatory brake testing before each trip." It also maintains that all SA Roadlink coaches "have two drivers, and each driver drives for periods of three to four hours before he has to change".
"Totally misleading and totally untrue," says Wilson, displaying work schedules to prove his point. His prediction that the media would find it impossible to extract any comment from SA Roadlink proved true.
The union now hopes that by adding a complaint to the ASA, more people will realise why the union is gatvol and that they will add their voices to demands that the company complies with its website promises - and with the labour laws.