Truck drivers and their employers have ”in principle” reached an agreement about the workers’ wages, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) said on Tuesday.
Negotiators from the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union and the Road Freight Employers’ Association (RFEA) would sign the deal at noon on Tuesday, said CCMA director Edwin Molahlehi.
”At this stage, we agreed not to disclose any details to the public until we sign,” he said after Monday’s 10-hour meeting.
Tuesday’s signing ceremony would end the five-day strike, and the violent protest.
About 3 000 truck drivers have been travelling to RFEA’s offices in Braamfontein since Wednesday last week to await the outcome of the wage talks between their unions and the RFEA.
The truck drivers, most of them members of Satawu, demand a 10% pay hike on their basic salary, and nine percent across-the-board. But the RFEA offered 7,5% on minimum wages and seven percent on the across-the-board.
”An allowance of three percent and 2,5% on the across-the-board increase … will come into effect no earlier than 1 June 2005,” the RFEA said in Monday night’s statement.
Twenty-nine truckers were arrested in the Johannesburg city centre after violent clashes with the police. Nine people were injured.
On Friday, pumps in the south of Johannesburg and some parts of KwaZulu-Natal had run out of petrol because of the strike.
Petrol distributors took advantage of a lull in trucker violence over the weekend and refuelled some of the service stations.
The strike had however not significantly affected the availability of petrol in the country, the Petroleum Industry Association said.
”Nationwide, petrol and diesel are freely available,” director of the South African Petroleum Industry Association Colin McClelland said on Monday.
He said there might be ”some problems” at petrol stations in the vicinity of Johannesburg, particularly on the southern side, but that this was not a serious concern.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said the truck drivers’ violent protests over the past week was likely to alienate public sympathy to their cause.
”While it is the right of all workers to strike for better wages, the manner in which the truck drivers go about exercising those rights is very important,” Mdladlana’s spokesperson Page Boikanyo said.
RFEA chief executive Nico Badenhorst has said the strike was costing the country R100-million a day.
The Inkatha Freedom Party on Monday expressed concern about the strike’s cost to the country and called on both parties to put South Africa first and come to a settlement.
”We have noted with gratitude that some progress has been made… We can only trust that the leaders on both sides will be reasonable and bring this dispute to an amicable end,” said IFP spokesperson Hennie Bekker.
The unions participating in the industrial action are Satawu, the Africa Miners And Allied Workers Union, the Motor Transport Workers Union (South Africa), the Professional Transport Workers Union of South Africa and the Transport and Allied Workers’ Union. – Sapa