Now the pump jockeys want to strike

NOW the union to which some petrol pump attendants belong want to go on strike. What a dreadful blow to South African motorists! No more sitting in your car while the fuel sloshes into your tank. You will have to sully your hands and man the pump yourself, just like motorists do just about everywhere else in the world! Question: Will pumping your own gas make you a scabby striker breaker? Spigot is breathless with anticipation as the Law of Unintended Consequences inevitably unfolds. Pump jockeys, whether they know it or not, are working in protected employment. Since each of the 40,000 attendants support at least five other family members, self-service at petrol stations is forbidden. A strike will therefore adversely affect 200 000 people. Not that the unions care a fig about that, of course. Pump attendants may think they are employed by the oil companies but they are not. They are employed by the service station operator who -- by law -- cannot be an oil company employee, but must be an independent business. (This is to protect small businesses from being swallowed up by nasty old big oil). Again, the unions "representing" attendants, do not try and disabuse them of a belief that wearing a Shell forecourt uniform makes you an employee of Shell. Now that the unionised employees of the oil companies have won an increase to their not inconsiderable salaries, the unions are going to try and do the same trick with pump attendants. It will be interesting to see what happens. Will the Minister of Mineral and Energy step in again? Will this mean the end to full-service forecourts? Will sanity prevail? Will pigs fly?