All South African Airways (SAA) flights leaving from Johannesburg and Cape Town International airports were grounded on Friday morning as the airline’s employees embarked on a nationwide strike, the United Association of South Africa (Uasa) said.
”From the information we’ve got no SAA flights have taken off yet from Johannesburg and Cape Town,” said Uasa spokesperson Gerhard Ueckermann on Friday morning.
”No cabin crew have arrived for work. They are standing outside picketing,” he said.
Uasa said on Thursday thousands of its members would take part in the strike following a deadlock in pay negotiations.
Uasa is the largest representative union of ground staff and cabin crew at SAA.
It was not yet clear whether members of fellow trade union, the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) were also on strike. The union held talks with SAA on Thursday night.
Both unions demand an eight-percent increase while SAA is offering five percent.
Uasa and SAA were supposed to meet on Thursday. However, the meeting was cancelled after Uasa gave the company notice of its intention to strike, Ueckermann said.
He said SAA then refused to meet for informal talks.
”They said we acted in bad faith because we gave notice of our intention to strike,” he said.
”But they’ve acted in bad faith since the beginning. They pleaded poverty and then announced they had sufficient profit and last week they started deploying scab labour. They recruited temporary or contract labour without us giving notice.”
Ueckermann said the union wanted to resolve the dispute ”as soon as possible”.
SAA spokesperson Onkgopotse Tabane confirmed that no meeting took place on Thursday.
”There was no meeting because the union went on to issue a notice to strike instead of coming to the meeting.”
Tabane said arrangements had been made for operations to run as normal.
”Contingency plans are in place to counter any possible interruptions. These include combining flights, using larger aircraft on routes, and management helping to check passengers in.”
SAA advised passengers to check in at airports well in advance to avoid any delays.
He said that regular updates on the strike would be posted on the SAA website. However, on Friday morning the latest information available on the website was dated Wednesday, July 20.
Uasa’s general manager Andre Venter said on Thursday the ”latest developments resulted from various unacceptable actions on the side of management”.
He said all incoming and outgoing domestic flights and outgoing international flights would be disrupted.
”But we will try not to disrupt incoming flights from overseas [and African international flights].”
Earlier on Thursday, Satawu general secretary Randall Howard told reporters in Johannesburg: ”Satawu stands ready, is mobilised and united together in the struggle to advance the pay of our members.
Howard said the union would pursue every avenue and make every effort to engage with SAA. There are 3 000 union members nationwide, including ground staff and cabin crew. – Sapa