“This is the first ever nationwide industrial action that can change the course of things in Tonga,” Sione Vuna Faotusia, a leader of the newly formed Tongan Public Servants Association told Pacnews. In Tonga, which has a population of 112,400, civil service is the country’s biggest employer, with more than 4,000 workers. The workers are demanding pay increases of up to 80 percent for the lowest paid employees and an increase in the minimum wage. To date they have rejected three lower offers from the government. Support for the walkout is growing. Many schools are closed as teachers are on strike. More than 100 college students marched through Nuku’alofa, the capital, August 3 to back their teachers. Two days later 600 workers at Tonga’s main hospital joined the strike. Together with several hundred students, teachers, and representatives from the Catholic Women’s League, they marched to the area where the strikers are assembled in central Nuku’alofa.

Some 10,000 people brought the city center to a standstill August 8 as they marched on the Royal Palace in support of the strikers’ demands. Tonga is ruled by a monarchy with near absolute power, but in recent years it has faced growing demands for democratic reforms.

The strike follows a similar-sized protest in May against high power prices, and another shortly afterwards against a new 15 percent sales tax.  
 
 
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