Portia Derby, CEO of the Transnet Group, said that most workers are back at work after the strike. Picture: David Ritchie
South Africa's state-owned logistics company Transnet has said that most of its workers have returned to work after a 2-week strike that hobbled the economy and caused a massive backlog at the country’s ports.
The majority union signed a multi-year wage agreement while the minority union remains on the picket lines.
The United National Transport Union (Untu), which represents close to 54% of Transnet’s workers, ended their stay-away on Monday after agreeing to a backdated three-year wage offer of a 6% hike, with an increased housing allowance.
Untu members went back to their posts yesterday to help Transnet clear the backlog of cargo stuck at its ports.
However, the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), which represents a third of Transnet’s workers, called Untu’s wage agreement with Transnet a “betrayal” considering that Satawu had joined the strike in solidarity with Untu.
TRANSNET DEAL
At the bargaining council Transnet offered a 4.5% across-the-board increase in the current year, which would have been implemented from October 1, 2022. This would be followed by a 5.3% increase in the 2023/24 financial year.
The offer also included a 4.5% increase in the medical aid allowance in 2022/23, which would be adjusted in line with the across-the-board increases in the subsequent two years.
Satawu rejected the deal as it was below inflation.
The final wage offer stated that Transnet’s deal would apply retrospectively from April 1 this year to the end of March 2025.
The agreement includes a 6% increase in year one, a 5.5% increase in year two, and a 6% increase in year three.
There will also be an increase in the housing allowance.
The wage deal applies to all bargaining unit employees, including those who are not members of Untu.
On Tuesday, Transnet said it had started implementing recovery plans across its freight rail and port operations.
“Employee attendance is up across the board, averaging between 70% and 80%, with more employees expected to return over the next two days,” Transnet said.
Speaking to Bruce Whitfield on “The Money Show”, Portia Derby, CEO of the Transnet Group, said: “We have extended the wage deal to all workers at Transnet and any strike action carried forward would be deemed illegal. At Transnet port terminals, we have a lot of work to do to clear up the backlogs caused by the strike.”
She said that it should take the company 6 – 9 weeks to clear the backlog.
Workers divided
Satawu general secretary Jack Mazibuko said this demonstrated that the working class was not homogeneous but was divided from a stratification, theoretical, conscious, social and economic point of view.
“Conditions of this nature suggest that petty bourgeois members located in the mentioned union mandated their representatives to sign an anti-worker wage agreement,” Mazibuko said.
“The agreement is centred on the class interests of the employer, profit maximisation, exploitation, precarious work conditions and employee insecurities.”
Mazibuko said Satawu would intensify its strike action as the no-retrenchment clause was removed from the wage agreement, meaning that the employer was empowered to retrench.
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