Profit-sharing gripe incites further port strike action

Terry Hutson AMIDST NATIONWIDE concern from shipping lines and industry, the two-day strike at the country's ports by members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) was called off at the weekend, with workers due to return for duty today (December 3). But as this issue went to press on Monday morning (December 3), there was little action in the port of Durban and at ports countrywide as two more unions, UTATU (United Transport and Allied Trade Union) and SALSTAFF (SA Logistics, Services, Transport and Allied Workers Union) downed tools. Last week's SATAWU strike affected areas directly under the control of SA Port Operations, leaving normal cargo handling in leasehold areas to continue without disruption other than a limited ship movement. The most affected areas were the three container terminals at Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. A spokesman at DCT said it would probably take until the New Year to catch up fully. A spokesman for UTATU in Durban told FTW that SA Port Operations and the National Ports Authority were guilty of unfair labour practices. Profits from wharfage fees Wyndham Evans said that junior ranks had not been party to any profit sharing despite an agreement reached with Portnet in November 2000. He claimed that profit sharing paid to senior managers included profits from wharfage fees that were specifically excluded in the November agreement. The earlier strike by SATAWU members resulted from similar breakdowns over non-payment of bonuses to workers amidst claims that management had received performance bonuses of up to R50 000. The union also said a call for the regrading of workers had been ignored. Steven Matlou of SA Port Operations said there had been no such agreements with labour over the payments of incentive bonuses at the beginning of the financial year to end March 2001. "SAPO and NPA has already honoured and paid out productivity-related bonuses that were agreed with unions at the beginning of the 2000/2001 financial year in divisions where targets had been set." He said that management had however paid itself profit-sharing bonuses, because these had been agreed between management and Transnet at the beginning of the 2000/2001 financial year and these were based on audited and pre-set targets. Matlou promised that the other dispute over job grading would get management's full attention now that the divisionalisation process had been bedded down.