Post Office strike – latest

It appears the Post Office is slowly limping back into operation. This is the update FTW Online  received yesterday.

Witspos sorting centre worked over the weekend of 8 and 9 November and on Saturday 9 truckloads of mail left the mail centre for delivery.

Tshwane Mail is today manned at 60% of full capacity. The mail centre will work over weekends and later introduce a night shift when enough employees become available.

Sporadic incidents of intimidation at sorting centres continue to occur but have been reduced following support from the SA Police Services. Eight people appeared in court in Bloemfontein on 8 November on charges of intimidation related to the strike and will appear in court again on 17 November.

Street delivery in most areas of Pretoria has resumed. In the greater Johannesburg area, delivery to postboxes has resumed with street delivery in limited areas only.

A significant backlog remains at the Johannesburg International Mail Centre for mail coming into South Africa from other countries. Mail is flowing to countries outside South Africa. International surface mail is not affected by the industrial action.

No post offices are closed as a result of intimidation. Repair work has started on the post offices that were damaged by striking workers and these offices were expected to start opening this week.

Mail processing has also resumed at the Polokwane and Emalahleni sorting centres, which were affected by industrial action. In other provinces the mail service is normal with no employees on strike.

Negotiations to address the concerns of the labour unions continue with the three unions recognised in the SA Post Office. They are CWU (Communication Workers Union), DEPACU (Democratic Postal Communication Union), and SAPWU (South African Postal Workers Union).

The three unions involved have responded to a proposal that was tabled by Sapo regarding the conversion of casuals and salary increments.

Meetings are still continuing to achieve consensus on a workable proposal, with specific consideration of the financial crisis that is being experienced and which is exacerbated by the inability to restore full operations.