Durban port avoids strike action

TERRY HUTSON INDUSTRIAL ACTION involving workers at SACD in Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg had not spilled over into adjacent Sapo or other terminals by last week, despite media reports that made this claim. The UK-based Containerisation International reported in its online version last week that widespread action was expected to bring the port of Durban to a standstill after members of the South African Transport Workers' Union (Satawu) refused to From page 1 accept a wage offer from SACD management. The report quoted Satawu’s Joseph Dube as saying the SACD strike was indefinite and that further action was being planned. In addition he said Satawu had filed a petition against the Transnet Bargaining Council because of ‘disinformation’ put out by Sapo chief executive Tau Morwe last year, when he said that workers at Sapo terminals were not meeting productivity levels. Satawu says that Morwe advised Durban journalists that workers were too old, had poor vision and were illiterate and unable to perform. The union claims that Sapo has a hit-list of Satawu sympathisers whom it intends to sack, and had already dismissed what it called ‘four union-friendly’ general managers – presumably a reference to the former GMs that were invited to apply for new positions when Sapo restructured late in 2004. Two - Themba Gwala and Mdu Nene - declined to apply and left the organisation, while a third former GM failed the aptitude test for a new position. A fourth former GM, Pumi Sithole, successfully tested and has been appointed executive of customer services. A spokesman for SACD told FTW that operations at the Durban depot were continuing despite a large stay-away that at one point last week became militant. He said widespread intimidation was occurring but management was in negotiations with Satawu to resolve the matter. A Sapo spokesperson confirmed that the strike had not spilled over into the adjacent Durban Container Terminal.