The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Tuesday pledged its full support for members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) employed by Equity Aviation, who are on strike for the third week over wage increase demands.
In a demonstration of solidarity, the union federation has called on its members to join the picket lines at all the major airports.
Equity Aviation, the airports baggage handling company, is a newly incorporated, privatised company after Transnet sold the majority of shares in the company to a British multinational arms corporation and a local consortium.
Cosatu said workers’ rights and conditions were supposed to be guaranteed under the National Framework Agreement.
Satawu on Monday stated that it was still consulting its members on the way forward regarding the ongoing strike at some of the country’s main airports.
Satawu spokesperson Evan Abrahams said that negotiations on Friday between the union and Equity Aviation mediated by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), had proven unfruitful.
“The baggage system at the airports is under enormous pressure due to this strike and the reports we are receiving are that many people have even lost their bags,” Abrahams said.
He also accused Equity Aviation of employing “dirty tactics” in order to undermine the Satawu strike.
Satawu is demanding an 8% wage increase and is also seeking a 40-hour work week for employees, while Equity Aviation is offering 6%.
The company has a total workforce of 1 500 and it is believed about 900 of these belong to Satawu.
Cosatu said the dispute had arisen after a lengthy round of negotiations, which should have led to an agreement to have been implemented from April 1 2003. On the first day of negotiations, however, talks broke down.
Satawu demanded information that the company refused to divulge, saying the union might leak such information to competitors.
Cosatu has accused the company of continuing to harass and intimidate Satawu members by illegally threatening to dismiss them for striking, illegally deducting pay from their hours worked in a previous pay month and refusing to issue pay slips.
Satawu said it has noted that Equity Aviation is “unethically” using wage negotiations and the reasonable desire of workers for a wage increase to “bulldoze” through new working conditions, contrary to those it agreed to on taking over the company.
“Satawu cannot agree to any change in working conditions as a condition to settling these wage negotiations.”
Cosatu has called on its members to show solidarity with the Satawu strikers by attending mass pickets on 10 January 10 from 10.00 to 12.00 (except Durban). – I-Net Bridge