40,000 Tickets for 2010 to Construction Workers

Remember those 120,000 tickets that World Cup 2010 organizers said would be set aside for distribution, at no charge, to poor South Africans?

Turns out that 40,000 of them are going to construction workers involved in preparations for the World Cup, organizers said today.

Given that strikes by workers seeking better pay have at times delayed construction, you have to wonder if this is a sort of gesture designed to win the cooperation of labor and its unions.

What is a more attractive concept to a construction worker, in South Africa, than the concept of free tickets to see a match in a stadium you helped build?

Clever move, on the part of organizers.

But those 120,000 free tickets for the poor ... are now down to 80,000. Maybe poor people should go on strike, or hold mass demonstrations. See if that frees up some more tickets.