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Strike Panel

Comprehensive strike data covering South African industrial action during the late apartheid period.

Key Files

File Rows Description
strikes_master_csv.csv 2,679 Master strike incident panel (1984-1990)
strikes_locations.csv 2,678 Location/geographic crosswalk
strikes_with_macro_controls.csv — Strike data with macro controls
working_papers_converted/ 31 files Digitized strike working papers (WP 33-71)
working_papers_extracted/ ~480 files OCR-extracted table fragments
wip_extracted/ expanding NEW — AI extraction from WPs 3-32 (1978-1984)

Coverage

  • Period: 1978-1990 (expanding backward to 1978 with WP 3-32 extraction)
  • Incidents: 2,679 strikes in master panel (1984-1990) + pre-1984 incidents being extracted
  • Firm matching: 241 strikes matched to JSE-listed firms (for the Naidu, Turban & Wilse-Samson paper)

Pre-1984 Extension (NEW 2026-03-29)

wip_extracted/ — Claude API extraction from 25 SALDRU "Work In Progress" PDFs (WPs 3-32, Jan 1978 - Jul 1984). Uses text extraction where OCR layer exists, Claude Vision for image-only pages.

Output format: Company, Area, Region, Union, Issue, Workers, Date, WP_Number, WP_Date, Page

Early WPs (1978-79) are primarily editorial with few structured strike entries. WPs 21+ (1982-84) have consistent Company/Date/Workers/Union labeling yielding 20-40 incidents per issue.

Script: ops_admin/scripts/digitization/extract_strike_wps.py

Variables

  • Date, duration, number of workers involved
  • Firm name, industry, location
  • Outcome (settlement, dismissal, etc.)
  • Geographic identifiers for crosswalking

Key Findings (Naidu, Turban & Wilse-Samson)

Using 241 strikes matched to JSE-listed firms with a four-factor asset pricing model:

  • Mean abnormal return: -0.35% on strike day (t = -1.824, p = 0.034)
  • Political strikes: 2.4x larger effects than economic strikes (-0.83% vs -0.35%)
  • State of Emergency: additional -0.39% (p = 0.076)
  • COSATU strikes: additional -0.56% (p = 0.017)
  • Sanctions complementarity: political strikes near sanctions → 3.4x amplification (-1.20%)
  • Political targeting: null — no significant difference in Afrikaans board composition between struck and non-struck firms (18.1% vs 19.2%)
  • Aggregate impact: ~3.8 billion Rand total value destruction (~1.2% GDP), comparable to international divestment

Provenance

  • Source: Government records, academic working papers, Work in Progress (SALDRU)
  • Compilation: Hand-coded from multiple sources (1970-1990)
  • Source documents: raw_archives/05_labor/strikes/