‘Mediation remains in Transnet mix’

KEVIN MAYHEW
THE PORTENTS are not good for an early resolution of the industrial action being undertaken by Transnet unions and management despite the national strike due on Monday (March 6) being delayed for a week. This was apparently the only positive announcement to emerge from talks on Saturday (March 4) - which included two mediators - to try to resolve issues around Transnet’s restructuring. The unions put the industrial action postponement down to a clash of interests with the Jacob Zuma rape trial which began on Monday amid tight central Johannesburg security. Independent mediator Charles Nupen, who engaged both parties for talks on Saturday to establish their plans and get a brief upon which to base any mediation, said he believed mediation had merely been postponed “to be introduced when the time was right”. The unions rejected mediation during this first meeting. “The issues are detailed and complex and it will take time for any mediator to get on top of them but I think it will be a case of deferred mediation to be put on the table at a later stage. The important thing is that mediation is in the mix as an option in future,” he told FTW. Asked about the possibility of greater violence as the industrial action dragged frustratingly on, Nupen said the unions were taking action in accordance with accepted procedures and this should mean that the action will remain within legal parameters. Nupen was called in to resolve the country’s worst strike in 1991 which culminated in 38 dead before his mediation brought it to an end. The strike involved South African Transport Services and the South African Railways and Harbour Workers’ Union (Sarhwu), which is involved in the current dispute as well. “The issues are different today and I do not expect that to happen,” he said. The mediation introduction broke down on Saturday around the issue of the transfer of Metrorail into the South African Rail Commuter Corporation by way of a sale agreement effective on April 1. Unions claim that workers were not consulted about job security and the terms and conditions of their employment. Transnet appears to be steaming ahead with the sale of businesses not essential for it to operate as an efficient, publicly owned freight transport company. It has undertaken a year of consultations with all its stakeholders, including labour, over the process of selling its non-core assets.