19/02/2026
Publication: CWAO
Author: Press Office
The latest Strike Barometer covers all strikes and workplace-related actions that took place between 1 January and 31 December 2025.
View 2025 Strike Barameter here
Key features of strikes in 2025:
* There were 117 strikes in 2025. This is far higher than the 87 strikes of 2024, the 85 strikes that took place in 2023, and the 86 strikes that occurred in 2022.
* The 2025 strike total represents a 34% increase over 2024 and is higher than the pre-Covid strike levels of 2018 and 2019 (116 and 102, respectively).
* Wildcat strikes increased dramatically in 2025. In 2024, wildcat strikes made up 53.5% of all strikes that year. But in 2025, 77.8 % (91 of the 117 strikes) were wildcat.
* Most strikes (79 of the total of 117 strikes) were held in the public sector and privatised public services, led mainly by municipal workers, security guards hired through private companies to guard public institutions, bus drivers, health workers, Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers and community health workers. The vast majority of these strikes (69 out of 79) were wildcat.
* Overall, the biggest reason for striking was over unpaid wages. The second biggest reason for striking was for permanent jobs. Unusually, strikes for wage increases, historically always the main reason for strikes, were only the third-highest reason for striking in 2025. Other major reasons for striking in 2025 were against poor health and safety conditions; against various forms of mismanagement, including nepotism in the workplace, and against retrenchments or dismissals.
* Workers continued to down tools against police harassment, racism, exploitation, corruption, overwork, for union recognition and against austerity measures that resulted in short staffing.
* It is significant that 28 of the wildcat strikes were purely led without the involvement of unions. This is a development that confirms that, increasingly, the ‘precariat’ is at the forefront of worker struggles.
About the Strike Barometer:
The CWAO collected this information through union networks, the media and desktop research. We could not rely on government figures because the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) has not released its annual Industrial Action Report yet. (Even its report on 2024 strikes was released 11 months later, in November 2025).
The CWAO has noticed further problems with the DEL's strike information - the DEL mixes strikes, pickets, secondary action, stayaways/protest, multi-employer strikes and lockouts under the broad rubric of ‘work stoppages’. However, a strike is an action undertaken by workers, whereas a lockout is undertaken by an employer, two very different actions and the reason why each is defined discretely in the Labour Relations Act. They cannot be combined and simply referred to as ‘strikes’.
For interviews and analysis, please contact Sydney Moshoaliba, CWAO Researcher on 072 509 3587
