South African trade union Solidarity is consulting its legal advisers in an effort to decide what action to take against the University of South Africa (Unisa).
The trade union said in a statement on Wednesday that this comes after Unisa refused it recognition despite the fact that it already has three times as many members than the minimum requirement set by the university.
Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans argued that the union has complied with all the requirements set by the university.
The staff of Unisa is frustrated with the unions that have recognition.
Their leave has been changed from 30 to 25 days this year, without any of the unions making an effort to prevent this, Kleynhans said.
“Unisa knows that Solidarity will not tolerate this kind of conduct from the university and therefore it refuses to give us recognition,” he added.
Solidarity added that it was also unhappy with the attitude of Unisa’s human resources director.
“He refuses to allow us to advertise on campus or to distribute any documents. Solidarity is also not allowed to organise meetings on campus, which is clear to us that the management of Unisa are afraid of the union and don’t want it on the campus,” he continued.
Kleyhans continued that the union could easily have 1 000 members at Unisa by Christmas and the university would have no choice but to give it recognition.
“Our legal representatives will soon advise us on the appropriate steps to force Unisa into recognising Solidarity. In the meantime, we refuse to be intimidated by Unisa and will keep on recruiting new members at the university,” Kleynhans said. — I-Net Bridge