Transnet and workers still at loggerheads

If the unions confirm it during meetings this week, the country’s transport infrastructure could come to a grinding halt next week. That’s as far as Jane Barrett, policy officer of the main transport workers’ union, Satawu, is concerned. The tentative date for the Transnet strike is next week, she told FTW. “Our mandate to proceed with the strike has been confirmed by the members,” she added just before our April 26 copy deadline. “We have been meeting with the other union involved, Utatu, to agree on the date. “But Utatu is still waiting for its mandate to be approved, and the date will be decided at a meeting during this week.” Conciliation in the wage dispute between the two recognised unions and Transnet came to an end last week without any agreement. And this impasse, according to a union statement, could lead to strike action across South Africa’s port, rail and pipeline systems, with the 50 000-strong workforce in Transnet’s six divisions represented by Cosatu affiliate, Satawu, and the Fedusa affiliate, Utatu. According to an update from Satawu, Transnet has put an 8% wage offer on the table. But the unions are demanding 15% in an attempt to make up for what it terms a “lessthan- average” wage increase in 2009. The fact that massive bonuses were paid to managers in 2009 also raised Satawu’s ire. The organisation calculated that the 11 executive managers received an average of R2.5-million in bonuses whereas the average bonus paid to workers in the bargaining unit was R10 000. These massive discrepancies were said to have fuelled the idea of “inequality and greed on the part of a few”. There has also been a union/management dispute over maternity leave. Satawu is unwilling to accept that the babies of manager mothers deserve two more months of maternal care than the babies of workers, and this disagreement has still not been settled. There seems to be a settlement about retrenchments, with the unions having demanded that there be no retrenchments in 2010. But, while management agreed to this, it is still dependent on the workers and their unions accepting the 8% Transnet offering. The offer was presented to a national shop steward’s council last week, then to general membership in the provinces. Satawu immediately received a mandate to proceed with strike action, while Utatu members are still to decide. But, said Barrett, a meeting between the two unions was diarised for April 28, and she expected this to make the final decision on the way forward – including whether or not to continue with the strike next week.