** Business Day ** ** ***Transnet strike to start today***
*Alistair Anderson, Business Day, 10 May 2010*THE South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said yesterday it would begin a nationwide strike at parastatal Transnet today.
The union last went on strike at Transnet in 2006, over restructuring. This is the first national collective bargaining strike of all the parastatal's divisions in Satawu's 10-year history.
Today's strike comes despite the fact that workers have been offered a wage increase of more than double the inflation rate.
A policy research officer at Satawu, Jane Barrett, said on Friday that the union had rejected an 11% wage offer as "too little too late". She said the offer was misleading as it represented an 11% increase in the basic wage, while other worker benefits would increase by only 8%.
"The housing allowance will remain at 8%, as will medical aid contributions for the workers. Based on this, the public should understand that we have not been unreasonable in rejecting the 11% offer," she said.
Satawu, which represents 18000 of Transnet's 50000-odd employees, has demanded a 15% across-the-board wage increase, while management was initially offering 8%.
Barrett also said that about 10% of Transnet's workers were on fixed-term contracts, which offered no employee benefits to them other than a basic wage.
"Transnet's clause on fixed- term workers is confined to its capital projects division and promises that 850 out of 5000 workers would be granted permanent positions.
"We feel that, in line with the (African National Congress) Polokwane resolution on decent work, the parastatal has an obligation to grant all of its workers permanent, reliable jobs," she said.
Barrett said Satawu also wanted to "negotiate a fairer bonus calculation formula", while Transnet "wanted merely to consult around if it should change", which "could make the strike persist for weeks to come".
"It takes more than 120 years for the lowest-paid worker at Transnet to earn what the CEO does in a year," she said.
Transnet's human resources executive, Pradeep Maharaj, said workers' benefit schemes had been "negotiated with care" and they were "quite lucrative by market standards".
"Our workers earn on average R130000 a year and receive 13th and 14th cheques, which is unusual for any business. In fact, a 15th cheque may still be paid this year," he said.
Asked whether she expected the strike to last into the Soccer World Cup, Barrett said that "was up to management to decide by coming to the party or not".
Brait economist Colen Garrow said he believed management might be "more charitable than usual during wage season" due to the soccer spectacle.
"Even a threat to strike by any organisation that influenced services to SA and the world's citizens would be a powerful bargaining tactic for better wages, given how SA will need to protect its image in the foreign media, a month before the World Cup, and how reliant the country's fragile economy is on foreign investment," Garrow said.
Tinzi Lubabalo, Satawu's national sector co-ordinator, said the strike would affect all the company's operations, including ports, oil pipelines and rail.
The United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) said it had withdrawn its decision to strike at the same time as Satawu. General secretary Chris de Vos said a new deal had been offered to his union and he needed to present it to his members today.
"As a responsible union we have decided to suspend the strike for two days and ask our members to consider the offer," he said.
Utatu represents about 22000 Transnet workers, most of whom work at Metrorail.
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