Talks between representatives of 16 000 striking railway workers and South African Transport Services (Sats) collapsed for the second time yesterday amid a threat that the already-massive strike will spread to municipal workers.
The Municipal Workers of SA (Mwusa) — closely related to the union that brought Johannesburg to a halt in a 1980 dispute, has threatened to down tools if the five week railway strike and the solidarity strike of 670 postal workers is not settled soon. At talks yesterday with the SA Railway and Harbour Workers Union, Sats insisted that only five of Sarhwu's 39 worker representatives should be allowed to attend the meeting. The talks were postponed and are due to resume today.
However, its seems that the same 39 members would again attend this morning's meeting, setting the stage for another confrontation. Sats is still refusing to recognise Sarhwu. Yesterday's talks were with 39 "elected grade stewards" at City Deep. This week Sats rejected an offer by Cosatu, to which Sarhwu is affiliated, to mediate. Instead Sats has warned that the strikers will lose their bonuses, due in April, because they were absent from work at the start of the month, and added a warning that they could be dismissed.
The long-awaited talks failed to kick off as scheduled on Wednesday after the worker representatives failed to turn up at the agreed venue for the meeting. The railway strike the longest ever in the public sector, enters its fifth week today and has affected some 80 railway depots on the Witwatersrand and Vereeniging. The strike was triggered by the dismissal of a driver at City Deep who was punished for allegedly having been late in handing back R40,40.
Police reported yesterday that a bomb blast, the second since the railway strike began, disrupted train services into Soweto on Wednesday, causing delays of more than three hours. And the Bureau for Information confirmed that more than 300 railway strikers were arrested under Emergency regulations at Ogies, near Springs. The Bureau said the strikers had "gathered illegally".
In a statement yesterday, Mwusa pledged solidarity with the railway and postal strikers. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has also pledged solidarity with the striking postal workers. Cosatu's general secretary, Jay Naidoo, told Weekly Mail his federation fully backs the striking postal workers in their fight for better working conditions.
Meanwhile the one-week-old strike by post office workers has spread from Soweto to Johannesburg and Randburg. Postal and Telecommunication Workers' Association (Potwa) president Vusi Khumalo warned yesterday that if the dispute between the workers and management is not resolved by today, the industrial action might escalate in other regions.
Post office officials were unavailable for comment. The strike has left eight post offices in Soweto without postal services since last Thursday.