A STRIKE wave is gripping South Africa with fishermen, media workers and fuel industry and electricity workers taking action.
In an eleventh hour decision on Tuesday, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) applied for a strike certificate in order to down tools at the country’s energy supplier, Eskom. Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) are already on an unprotected strike at the power utility in Mpumalanga, and have urgently convened a national shop stewards council to discuss whether the strike should be extended nationwide.
In a statement issued late Tuesday night, NUMSA announced that wage negotiations have stalled and that an application for a certificate of non-resolution had been sent to the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). The metalworkers union, which is also the biggest in South Africa with about 370,000 members, has requested a meeting with Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe and his senior management team in a bid to avert the strike.
NUMSA general secretary Irvin Jim said: ‘If no agreement can be reached NUMSA members are ready, as a last resort, to join all Eskom workers in all unions in strike action in support of our just demands. Where the NUM is already on strike, NUMSA members will join them.’
The NUM represents the majority of Eskom’s over 40,000-strong workforce with about 15,000 members and is followed by NUMSA, with 10,000 members. However, all these workers could face dismissal if the unions decide to go ahead with the strike.
On Monday, Eskom management warned its employees who did not turn up for work at the Arnot power station in Mpumalanga that they would face disciplinary action. This is because the power utility is designated as an essential service. Unions have not been allowed to call a strike at Eskom since 2004, when they collectively withdrew from a minimum service agreement.
But NUM energy sector co-ordinator Paris Mashego said that the union would contest the essential service designation. He said: ‘Our experience is that Eskom strikes don’t last for more than two days. We wanted something similar, for the right to strike for one or two days.’
Deep sea fishers of I&J in Cape Town embarked on a strike just over a week ago in a demand for higher wages. About 500 workers in the Cape Town’s Table Bay harbour are on strike demanding a 23% wage increase. Workers claim the company had secretly given skippers, among others, increases of 23% two years ago.
Following court procedures, the workers downed tools ten days ago, saying the local plant strike could become national. Deep sea vessels docked its crews saying they will not set foot in the vessels again until they receive fair treatment. The National Certificated Fishing and Allied Workers Union (NCFAWU) claims information about the alleged increases were leaked last year.
It says attempts to speak to I&J about the issue have been fruitless and the company tried to prevent a strike through court action. The union says crews work under extremely difficult conditions at sea, often for long periods of time. NCFAWU General Secretary Llowellyn Domingo said: ‘Currently the strike is at plant level but our other bargaining has failed so this could become a national strike as we have three other unions within the I&J fold.’
Domingo said the matter was referred to the CCMA state mediation body last Thursday, adding that management is refusing to talk to the union about its members’ demands. He said: ‘The union made a suggestion – if the employer is willing to come up and discuss the 23%, the union will consider sitting down with its members and request them to return to work so that we can see what we get out of good negotiations, and the potential interest of workers to be attended to.’
Meanwhile, picketing action by striking workers at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) stretched into a sixth week on Monday. On 4 July, more than 50 employees at the regulatory body downed tools to embark on a protected strike. ICASA employees are protesting over organisational realignment, salary increases and the reversal of human resource policies and restructuring that took place in the 2014/15 fiscal year.
Workers are also demanding the payment of their bonuses for the 2014-15 financial year. ICASA said last month that it had previously decided on an agreement with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) on revised employment conditions, but workers said the union failed to represent their mandate.
The disgruntled workers then discontinued their CWU memberships, and they went on strike at the beginning of July this year without union representation. The striking workers, though, signed up to Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) trade union federation, the National Trade Union Congress of South Africa (NTUC) last week as the strike dragged on.
Strike organiser Suzan Mashinini said on Monday: ‘The strike is going into its sixth week, but the negotiations are ongoing. Last Friday, we sat until 20:00 in the evening, and then we made our proposals.
‘The management is now sitting today to discuss those proposals in a bid to resolve the strike.’
Mashinini said the workers are hoping for positive developments after three meetings with management over their dispute. She said: ‘We do not know what the outcome will be. But today, for us, it is a breakthrough. It will then determine whether we are on deadlock or not, depending on what they will bring from that meeting.’
In the ongoing fuel industry dispute, the Chemical‚ Energy‚ Paper‚ Printing‚ Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawau) has approached the Department of Labour‚ asking it to intervene and bring the petrochemical industry strike to an end.
This is according to the union’s chief negotiator‚ Jerry Nkosi‚ who said internal meetings were under way on Monday as the petrochemical industry strike entered its second week. He said: ‘People’s lives are at stake here. This strike needs to be resolved.
‘We have already written letters to the Department of Labour‚ to inform them of the situation and see what they can do.’ Negotiations between Ceppwawau and the National Petroleum Employers” Association (NPEA) remained dead-locked last Friday
Both parties confirmed on Monday afternoon that no further meetings had been scheduled.
Ceppwawau members are asking for a 9% wage increase. Employers are offering 7%. Meanwhile Fani Tshifularo executive director of the South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA) said that oil companies were executing contingency plans to keep fuel supply to service stations. ”We are not aware of any further planned negotiations between the employer body and the union‚’ Tshifularo said.
