The South African labour market is bracing itself for three strikes — mainly about wages.
One of these, by workers at supermarket chain Shoprite Checkers and its subsidiaries, started on Thursday this week. Shoprite workers, represented by the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu), are in dispute over the hours their casual staff are expected to work. About 30 000 workers are expected to join in the strike.
The union said Shoprite Checkers’s actions regarding casual staff had violated the Wholesale and Retail Sectoral Determination Act.
Shoprite spokesperson Callie Burger said in a statement that the proposals included, among other benefits, an allowance for medical aid facilities and wage adjustments amounting to an increase of more than 14% in wage costs.
”Many of the claims made in the union’s statement are blatantly untrue and designed to confuse the large number of casual and part-time workers who stand to benefit from the company’s latest offer,” said Burger.
”The company is nevertheless confident that the differences within Saccawu will soon be resolved and that the dispute will result in a negotiated settlement.”
Battle lines have also been drawn between arms manufacturer Denel and 3 500 of its workers, who are expected to declare war over wages and what one of the unions deemed to be the failure to comply with transformation agreements. The strike is planned to go ahead on Monday.
National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli told the Mail & Guardian this week that the unions representing Denel workers were consulting with their members about the date of the strike action at all 19 company plants.
Ntuli said the situation at Denel had reached ”a perilous turn” and workers were ready to strike.
Numsa said Denel had failed to comply with the Restructuring and Transformation Central Committee Accord and the National Framework Agreement by asking to be exempt from having to increase wages by 10,5% for the lowest-paid workers and 9,5% for the highest-paid workers, as required by agreements made within the steel and engineering sector.
The metalworkers’ body added that the arms manufacturer had unilaterally violated the conditions of employment laid down by law and had failed to consult the unions. This, Ntuli said, included changing work divisions and reducing pay structures without consulting with recognised unions.
Workers at Denel have started their strike preparations, holding demonstrations at the company’s premises.
”Our protest campaign had an even greater significance. It signals the preparedness of workers to strike this month. We want the company to eventually acquiesce to our concerns on pay hikes, consultation and transformation,” said Ntuli. Denel spokesperson Eugene Martins told the M&G on Thursday that he was in a meeting and would respond to questions e-mailed to him. He had not done so by the time the M&G went to press.
Work at the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) was also expected to halt from Monday because workers represented by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union could not reach agreement with management on wage increases.
Satawu has been demanding R3 300 a month for all newly-appointed employees, while management’s offer stands at R3 225. The union wanted a 10% increase across the board, but the company offered 7,5%.
Spokesperson for Acsa, Solomon Makgale, said: ”Acsa believes that the current across-the-board offer of 7,5% (the total package is 8,5%) is fair, reasonable and in line with what the rest of the market has offered. The company had budgeted for a 5,8% salary and wage increase in the 2003/4 financial year.”
He added that the ”no work no pay” principle would be applied.