A nationwide strike against Telkom’s plan to retrench workers will be organised by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU).
CWU president Joe Chauke said on Tuesday the union is not convinced by the telecommunication utility’s rationale for retrenchments and Telkom is reneging on a promise not to embark on a large-scale layoff after last year.
”We believe Telkom is behaving as an irresponsible corporate citizen by being insensitive to the socio-economic realities of our country,” he told reporters in Johannesburg.
The CWU, which claims to represent about 40% of Telkom’s 32 000 employees, said the strike is scheduled for August 27.
Chauke said that early in July Telkom issued a notice that it would retrench 1 340 employees over a three-year period. The number increased to 4 000 on July 21.
”We have indicated to the company that we vehemently oppose retrenchments and have referred the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration,” he said.
”We do not understand how a parastatal that has announced a R4-billion increase in revenue, awarded bonuses to senior management and increased tariffs can suddenly want to downsize its manpower.”
Chauke said the CWU has also declared a dispute with the South African Post Office Service (Sapos), Sentech and Telkom Facilities Management Company (TFMC) over wage demands.
The union is demanding from Sapos a 9% increase with a 4% increment backdated to July 1 last year. Sapos is offering an increase of 7% with 1% backdated to last year.
Sentech and TFMC have offered the union 6,4% and 5,3% wage increases respectively. The CWU is demanding salary increases of 7% and 7,5%.
Chauke said: ”We want to deal with the four companies in a systematic manner, especially Sapos, because our members did not receive wage increases last year.”
He said the union’s national executive committee resolved at a recent meeting to embark on a programme of action against Telkom, Sapos, Sentech and TFMC.
”This will involve protests in the form of lunch-hour picketing at all provincial branches of the four companies from August 11 to 13,” he said. ”A memorandum of our demands will also be presented to the departments of communication and public enterprises on August 19.”
The programme of action will culminate with a national strike that will include demonstrations in Pretoria. — Sapa