TFR strike called off

A week-long strike at
Transnet Freight Rail
(TFR), which started on
April 8, caused “chaos”
on the Johannesburg-
Durban container rail
route, according to Lawrie
Bateman, MD of MSC
Logistics.
When he talked to
FTW on April 15, his
company had 600 boxes
stuck in Johannesburg
because empty wagons had
not been returned from
Durban, and he estimated
that 1 200 containers were
awaiting uplift at the Port
of Durban.
Eddie McGregor of
Grindrod Intermodal
confirmed that things
had “begun to clog up” in
Durban.
“With containers
not being offloaded at
Durban,” he said, “the
wagons can’t be turned
around and sent back to
Gauteng.”
On Friday of last week
Bateman said that although
MSC had got a couple of
its trains through, there
were still other trains
stacked up at Kings Rest,
unable to get into the
marshalling yard at the
Port of Durban.
TFR’s communiqué
of that day carried the
following bad news:
“Currently there are 483
x 20-foot and 408 x 40-ft
import containers still to
be railed.
“Msc Nefeli is in
port with 200 x 20-ft
empty containers to City
Deep still to be discharged.
“Trains at Kings Rest –
16 trains, 662 containers.”
Selby Dlamini,
communications and
media manager at TFR in
Durban, told FTW that
the “legal strike” had been
called by the SA Transport
& Allied Workers’ Union
(Satawu) members who
were employed by TFR
Durban operations.
“They are demanding
the removal of the local
employee relations
manager,” he added,
“alleging that the
relationships between
the manager and their
members had broken
down.”
The issue had arisen
early in March, according
to Dlamini, when Satawu
members submitted
a petition to local
management demanding
the removal of the
manager.
At two meetings on
March 16 and March 25,
the union presented a list
of issues in support of
their demand.
“ As these issues
were unsubstantiated
allegations,” Dlamini
said, “management
responded by proposing an
independent investigator
to be appointed jointly to
investigate the allegations
and establish whether there
were any irregularities on
the part of the manager in
the execution of his duties.
Management further
suggested that the outcome
of the investigation would be binding on both
parties.”
This offer was made
because one of the
conditions of the Labour
Act states that it would
be inappropriate to
remove an employee
on the basis of untested
allegations without
having followed due
processes.
But Satawu rejected the
management offer and
eventually opted for the
strike from the evening
of April 8.
Meetings were then
held on April 9, 14, 15
and 16 in an attempt to
break the deadlock.
In an update by
Dlamini just before
our Monday publishing
deadline, he told FTW
that the Friday meeting
saw both parties coming
to an agreement.
The TFR manager
was placed on paid
suspension with the
strikers officially back at
work from Saturday.
“The backlog has been
cleared at all out yards,”
he added.
But Bateman disagreed.
“The backlog hasn’t
been cleared,” he said.
His company’s
Monday morning figures
showed 1 240 containers
still sitting at Durban
container terminal
(DCT) waiting for trains;
seven trains (containing
550 export containers)
still waiting at Kings
Rest; and containers
still waiting at the
City Deep terminal
in Johannesburg from
April 14.
Bateman reckoned it
would still take three or
four days to clear.