Threatened roadfreight strike – negotiations continue

Using the press as a podium is no way to conduct unionemployer wage negotiations, according to Magretia Brown, labour relations manager of the Road Freight Association (RFA). This follows a national press release by the transport union Satawu (the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union) – the largest union body in the freight industry – warning that it will go on strike on March 15 if its wage demands for trucking industry employees are not met. The union added that it intended to call for heavy and extra-heavy vehicle drivers, light vehicle drivers, artisans, forklift drivers, gantry crane operators, loaders/packers and general workers, to stop work. This would shut down the road transport industry and hit freight and logistics operators transporting everything from cash, fuel, chemicals, medical supplies, building supplies and furniture to perishable goods, livestock, and general goods in containers and breakbulk. The press statement also saw Satawu changing the original combined union demands which have remained fixed since the wage talks stalled over two weeks ago, according to Brown. At the deadlock, the four unions involved – Satawu; the Motor Transport Workers' Union (MTWU); the Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Tawu); and the Transport and Allied Workers' Union of SA – were holding on a 14% across-theboard (ATB) increase and 19% on the minimum wage, she told FTW. “But this latest article quoted Satawu demanding 15% on the ATB – and no longer a percentage increase, but a fixed minimum wage for drivers and general workers.” Satawu was quoted in the press as demanding a minimum wage of R6 000 per month for drivers and R3 000 per month for general workers. The road transport employers are intending no reaction to this latest statement. “A press release doesn’t constitute a motion to strike, according to the act,” said Brown. “We have received no official approach yet, and we stand by the official union position as they’ve already expressed it.” If Satawu, as stated, intends to call a strike for March 15, Brown added, then they will have to inform the RFA employers' body officially by March 10. But she told FTW that two of the other unions had already indicated that they disagreed with the Satawu press statement, and it’s still a “wait-and-see” situation.