Satawu hails success of one day strike

Business counts the costs ALAN PEAT THE ONE-DAY national strike on June 27 served its purpose, according to Ronnie Mamba, communications officer of the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) – the main workers’ body in the SA freight industry. “Basically,” he told FTW, “the purpose of the strike was to bring attention to the on-going problem of job losses and unemployment, and their impact on so many facets of our lives – as diverse as the crime rate and education. “We believe that the strike gave this problem the attention it deserves.” But for the business and industrial worlds, the Cosatu-sponsored nationwide strike saw a number of sectors faltering as tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in protest – and millions of rands in lost production were reported. According to the two giant unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, between 50% and 100% of workers across the country stayed away. The country’s mining industry was amongst the hardest hit, with an estimated 80% of the gold mining workforce downing tools. Coal mining faced a 70% stay away, and there was only a 50% turnout in the platinum and diamond mines. Meantime, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union was quoted saying that 90% of its members joined the strike, while the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union said over 60% stayed away. In the freight industry, it was shut-down day at SA’s major port of Durban, Kevin Martin of Freightliner told FTW. “From the reports of my operating staff,” he said, “just nothing was working in the harbour.” As far as the Durban container terminal (DCT) was concerned, this was confirmed by Paul Rayner, MD of DTB Cartage. “It was closed gates all day at the DCT,” he said – while highlighting a “major knock-on” effect on the day following the strike. This was indicated by the daily port statistics from SA Port Operations (Sapo) released to FTW by Rayner – which clearly displayed the extent of the workers’ stay away. In some strange fashion, ONE export container was recorded as having entered the harbour – apparently mysteriously slipped past the boycotting workers. But not a single other box was reported to have moved between 06:00 on the day of the strike, and 06:00 on June 28. Figures for ship loading/unloading at the terminal quays were almost as bad – with only 426 containers having been moved on the day of the work stoppage, out of the normal 3 000 boxes normally shown in the cross-quay statis tics. And the workers’ action is anything but over, with Cosatu having stated that it plans further protests – these including what it termed “provincial walkouts”, and another proposed half-day national strike diarised for September 19.