‘We will strike for as long as necessary

Workers in the transport and logistics industry will down tools on February 13 following a deadlock in negotiations since December last year. With a dispute having been declared, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) last week told FTW its members in both the transport and logistics industries would embark on a nationwide strike from February 13. “It is not just the truck drivers that will go on strike, but all our members in the industry,” said Satawu general secretary Zenzo Mahlangu. “We have approached the three other unions who have been negotiating with us, and while we cannot talk authoritatively on their behalf, we believe they will go on strike with us.” Mahlangu said all efforts to reach a resolution over workers’ demands with employees had been fruitless, leaving unions with no choice but to strike. “We do not believe our demands are unreasonable. We are asking for a 20% increase over two years, housing allowance, an increase in provident fund, shorter working hours and a 13th cheque – all demands we believe the employer can reasonably meet. And of course we are asking for the complete banning of labour brokers in the transport and logistics industry.” According to Satawu President John Dube, the decision to strike comes after much deliberation. “Negotiations with the freight industry had really already broken down in November. We merely declared a dispute in December and obtained the right to give 48 hours’ notice to strike. We believe they have offered us nothing from the beginning of the negotiations until the deadlock. The strike was inevitable as we could not come to any kind of agreement.” Reckson Baloyi, general secretary of the Professional Transport & Allied Workers’ Union of South Africa, said while they had yet to decide if they were going to join the strike, it seemed to be the only option left to workers. “They have just not come to the table with any offers we can accept. Our demands are not unjustified. They leave us with very little choice but to strike.” Magretia Brown- Engelbrecht, labour relations manager for the Road Freight Association (RFA), was yet to receive any notice from the unions about the strike when this issue went to press. “We have again requested further meetings with the unions and reminded them about our proposal to agree to a section 150 intervention by the CCMA,” she said. This intervention will see the CCMA appointing a commissioner to arbitrate between the various parties. According to Brown- Engelbrecht, they had also not received any formal notification from the unions that the industry offer of a 7.5% wage increase for 2011 and 2012 had been declined. “Our offer is already in excess of 4% of the current CPI,” she said. “Another matter in the dispute relates to the demand for the banning of labour brokers in the industry. The Road Freight and Logistics industry prevails as a leader in terms of regulation of the labour broking practice in that it was the first to have introduced a limit (30% on average over a 12-month period) to the number of people any company in the industry can source from labour brokers – a move that is still frowned upon by labour brokers.” In the meantime Cosatu has publicly stated its intention to enter into the “mother of all battles” around the issue of labour brokers saying it is a myth that they create jobs. According to Dube the issue of labour brokers in the industry is one demand on which they are not planning to back down. “The employer knows our demand – the complete banning of labour brokers. We will strike until our demand is met.” More than 50% of the freight and logistics industry is unionised and can be expected to strike on February 13. “We have no prescribed deadline planned,” said Dube. “We are able to strike for as long as it is necessary.”