Cape Town - In what could be a further blow to the country’s troubled economy, public sector unions confirmed they were gearing for the mother of all strikes after rejecting a government salary wage offer.
The unions have lodged a dispute in anticipation of a strike in coming weeks, ahead of the tabling of a medium-term budget policy statement by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on October 26.
United National Transport Union (UNTU) members at Transnet started their strike last week and South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) members joined in on Monday.
On Tuesday Cosatu-affiliated South African Transport and Allied Union (SATAWU) and other unions demanded a 12% salary increment across the board.
Transnet and its recognised unions UNTU and SATAWU signed the picketing rules and agreed on the picketing sites to facilitate peaceful picketing following the first day of conciliation talks under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Monday.
UNTU and SATAWU, which together represent most Transnet workers, have turned down Transnet's offer of a wage increase of 3%-4%, saying it was below the annual inflation rate, which was 7.6% in August.
While trucks were starting to queue at Bayhead Road toward the port in Durban on Tuesday, the Public Servants Association (PSA) confirmed it was also preparing for industrial action after the majority of its members rejected the government's salary-increase offer. The PSA claims to represent more than 235 000 public sector employees.
“The PSA declared a dispute when the government made a final offer of 2%, which prompted the government to improve the offer to a 3% pensionable salary adjustment and continued payment of the cash gratuity until March 31 2023. The PSA requested a mandate from its members to accept or reject the offer, resulting in a rejection of the offer by the majority of members who provided a mandate.
“The PSA attended a meeting today (Tuesday) where constructive engagement took place on the proposed draft picketing rules. The PSA proposed some amendments to the rules and the government requested time to apply its mind to the proposed amendments.
Parties agreed that the government will provide a written response on 14 October 2022 to which the PSA will reply.
Parties will convene on October 17 2022 to conclude the rules, failing which the commissioner will issue picketing rules in line with section 69 of the Labour Relations Act. The PSA will thereafter issue a notice to strike and commence with lunch-time pickets in support of a strike,” the union said in a statement.
Popcru, Nehawu and Denosa have also formally declared a dispute, and were awaiting the hearing date for the conciliation to enable them to receive a certificate to embark on industrial action.
The ongoing and looming public sector strikes will have a major impact on the country’s ailing economy, while the coal export industry, which has seen a boost in demand as a result of the war in Ukraine, is being hit hard by the ongoing industrial action by workers at Transnet.
Economist Dawie Roodt said strong leadership was required to avert the strike taking place at Transnet.
“When there is a strike at a place like Transnet, it will have major issues for the economy.
“Transnet is the lifeline of our economy,” he said.
Chris Yelland, an independent energy analyst, said South Africa was one of the biggest exporters of coal in the world and the strike was causing major disruptions to this.
“There will be a massive impact on the economy of South Africa and the GDP. We also have to remember that mining companies will start taking a major knock. The coal industry is already under pressure with the rail industry having so many problems, so already coal movement was affected and this will only add to the industry’s woes.”
Another energy analyst, Ted Blom, said: “This situation needs to be resolved as soon as possible. Mining companies will be impacted and will incur massive losses. If mining companies can’t reach a target of 10% of exports, that will already be a major issue.
“When a mining company loses business, as in this case in the coal industry, the fact is that there is no coming back for those businesses.”
South Africa was one of the three major exporters of coal in the world in terms of volumes, said Dr Sanele Gumede, an economics lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
“Obviously, not being able to export coal is going to have a major impact in South Africa.
“Remember, South Africa benefited from the Russia and Ukraine crisis in terms of coal exports and now with the Transnet strike could possibly lose all this business. If companies that are exporting from South Africa can’t get coal from here they will look to other countries to export coal and (this) will result in South Africa losing coal export contracts.”
Cape Times