The wheels are back on, but the truckers’ blockade was a costly protest. Farouk Chothia reports
DAVE MARTIN (44) has hauled freight for the past 10 years. “I’m not married. I can’t find a girlfriend. I’m treated like a filthy, stinking truck driver,” he said during this week’s unprecedented protest action by thousands of striking truck drivers.
Early estimates of the cost to the country of the 48-hour blockade, which started at Natal’s Mooi River Plaza before spreading to the Cape, the Transvaal and Natal’s North Coast, have been put at around R45- million.
The crisis was defused after the intervention of Labour Minister Tito Mboweni and agreement that an industrial council be set up to negotiate drivers’ wages and working conditions. The Mooi River blockade was a remarkable sign of worker solidarity, cutting across racial lines as black, white, Indian and coloured workers vented their frustrations jointly. Said Martin: “We have the same grievances. Colour is not an issue.”
But there were exceptions: as one white driver tried to ram his way through the blockade on the first day, a striker was crushed to death as the truck’s tyres drove over him.
Many of the drivers who blockaded a 30km stretch of the main Durban-Johannesburg route, bringing traffic to a halt, said they belonged to the Cosatu-affiliated Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&GWU). But the blockade appeared to have caught the union by surprise and its credibility was at a low ebb among the drivers.
Said Ahmed Khan (48), a driver for 17 years: “We are disappointed with the union. They have not done anything for us.”
Capitalising on this was a mysterious union called the Turning Wheels International Workers’ Union, which emerged as a representative of the protesters in talks with employers, Labour Minister Tito Mboweni and kwaZulu/Natal Minister of Roads and Transport, Sibusiso Ndebele.
Its suave, well-dressed and articulate leader, Richard Madime, declined to shed any light on Turning Wheels’ background.
But many drivers said they were pinning their hopes on Turning Wheels: “We think they will be more successful. They are an international union and they are only for drivers. The T&GWU is for other people in the industry also, so they ignore us,” said Khan.
Government credibility was high among the truckers. Said driver Dan Morgan: “If this had happened before the election, soldiers would have been sent and there would have been bloodshed. But the new government has dealt with the blockade in a peaceful way. Ministers even came to negotiate with our leaders.”
Describing a working life involving long hours, hundreds of thousands of kilometres and long periods away from home, the drivers demanded recognition from their employers for the work they do.
“I carry greater responsibilities than the managing director of my company. I transport highly flammable chemicals. If I make one mistake on the road, there could be an accident and a major disaster. Yet no one takes this into account,” said Martin.
Khan complained bitterly about the lack of facilities for drivers on the roads: “In towns across the country, heavy vehicles are not allowed to stop over and on the roads there are very few sleeping points. Between Durban and Johannesburg, there are only five points — in Villiers, Warden, Balmoral, UltraCity and Tugela. They take only 10 to 15 trucks each.
“Now where must the rest of us sleep? On the side of the road, only to get robbed? The government must provide us with facilities.”
One of their major grievances was poor wages. Many earn a basic salary of R250 a week.
Vusi Khumalo (48), a driver for four years, is slightly better off. “My company pays a basic of R400 a week and with overtime we end up with about R3 000 a month before deductions. The problem is that when we go to the bank for a loan to buy a car or a house, they look at our basic salary – – and that rules us out for any loan,” he said.
“Another problem is that when we are on leave or when we are sick, we only get our basic — and it is difficult to survive on that. So we keep working and we keep pushing overtime. The government needs to set a minimum basic wage for all drivers.”
Khumalo pointed out that the drivers have to pay about R60 towards a travel permit which they renew annually. “Our employers do not pay it for us. The government needs to scrap it.”
So effective have the blockades been that employer organisations conceded in negotiations late on Wednesday that “wages in the industry are low and should be changed radically”, paving the way for the strike to end. They agreed to pay the drivers for the duration of the strike.
Further talks between the drivers and employers will continue today, around the issue of establishing an industrial council.