Collective bargaining stood firm and saved South Africa’s ports of entry from what could have been a crippling strike by the Public Servants Association (PSA).
At close of business last Friday PSA deputy-general manager, Tahir Maepa, indicated that the union was all set to embark on mass action from today in a show of force dubbed the “Day of Rage.”
It followed a deadlock in wage negotiations resulting in the PSA threatening to shut down border posts such as Beitbridge and Komatipoort-Lebombo, as well as major airports.
Maepa told FTW Online last week that the PSA’s 230 000+ members would all go on strike en masse on Monday, thereafter randomly targeting SA’s primary ports of entry in a strategy devised to catch the government off guard.
But on Saturday morning it emerged that the PSA strike was cut short when negotiators reached a last-minute deal on Friday evening.
And this morning it was reported that the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union had agreed to a proposal that had been tabled during 11th hour deliberations at the Bargaining Council.
The council’s Frikkie de Bruin expressed his pleasure at having reached the deal, telling Business Report that “in this instance, collective bargaining was the ultimate winner”.
Although the increases granted to the various workers are well below the 12% that the unions wanted, ranging between six and seven percent, the PSA appears to have stuck to its word about falling in line with other unions.
Altogether some 17 unions formed part of the negotiations.
Maepa said from the start that although the PSA’s members were headed for mass action after negotiations “completely collapsed”, it would abide by any majority decision agreed to at the Bargaining Council.
