Violence erupted at Pick ‘n Pay stores this week as workers downed tools following the failure of pay talks. Vuyo Mvoko reports
PICKET line violence and the mass arrest of union members this week are ominous portents for the nationwide strike at retail giant Pick ‘n Pay.
The violence, following the failure of pay talks between the chain store and the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu), is particularly alarming in the context of the long, constructive relationship between the two in a strife-torn industry.
Market leader Pick ‘n Pay was last hit by a national strike in 1987. Since then it has built a reputation for being one the best payers in the industry, with an enlightened industrial relations policy.
Close to 1 000 workers were arrested this week, and 20 injured, when police swooped on demonstrators who had defied a court interdict barring protests and sit-ins on company premises. The upheavals ominously recalled the strike wave in the commercial sector in 1990, which was marked by large-scale violence and arrests arising from sit-ins.
This week’s protests were intended as a curtainraiser to a nationwide strike at Pick `n Pay’s 350 stores, due to begin on Tuesday next week. However, when the 75 percent “yes” vote in the strike ballot was released this week, workers spontaneously downed tools.
Management said about 80 stores had been “adversely affected”, with 15 _ predominantly in the Eastern Cape and the PWV _ having closed. Pick ‘n Pay joint managing director Gareth Ackerman warned that if store disruption continued, the company would reduce its wage offer to cover its costs.
On the Reef, police said seven workers had been injured by police dogs at the Steeldale Hypermarket, and that rubber bullets and stun grenades had been used at the Norwood Hypermarket and Ormonde Pick ‘n Pay. Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Opperman said police action had been sparked when a security guard had been hit on the head with a brick. Norwood strikers claimed the acting general manager of the store, Charles van Coller, had asked police to unleash a volley of rubber bullets on hundreds of workers staging a sit-in on the shop floor, and that no warning had been given. Van Coller said the strikers had been given two minutes to move.
At Ormonde, police said strikers had trapped customers in the store by barricading exits.
Saccawu’s Sthembele Tshwete said the workers’ pay claims _ a R229 across-the-board monthly increase, as compared to the R175 offered by management _ were motivated by what they considered their fair share of company profits. At least one other chain store paid better than Pick ‘n Pay, and they were convinced the latter could afford their demand.
“Loafing managers were earning big salaries,” he said, charging that directors were earning R5 000 a week, senior managers R3 000, and line managers R2 000, while the average worker was earning R350.
Ackerman said the company’s offer amounted to 11 percent, and should be seen in the context of a seven percent inflation rate and the company’s five percent growth rate.
While Ackerman condemned the union for doing nothing to control its members, Saccawu general secretary Bones Skhulu complained the company had given the union only two hours before enforcing the interdict. Before arresting the workers, police should have read the interdict to them, he said.
Skhulu said Pick ‘n Pay should not be deceived by “the euphoria of a new South Africa” and think that forms of pressure historically open to the unions were exhausted.
Responded Ackerman: “We are saddened that despite an excellent industrial relations track record, the union has seen fit to target Pick ‘n Pay as a soft touch.”