South African Airways obtained an interim Labour Court order on Thursday against a sympathy strike by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu).
Spokesperson Jacqui O’ Sullivan said the order would remain in place until final judgement next Tuesday.
SAA sought to prevent Satawu members in its employ from striking in support of labour action by Transnet workers over the parastatal’s restructuring plans.
Satawu members at Transnet went on a three-day strike in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State this week.
The unions involved in the action are Satawu, Utatu, the SA Railway and Harbour Workers Union (Sarhwu) and the United Association of South Africa (Uasa).
Transnet and the four staff unions were on Thursday afternoon locked in a meeting in a bid to resolve their differences.
Transnet seeks to privatise some businesses or parts of business units, resulting in SAA, Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl being moved out of Transnet. However, they would remain publicly owned.
Union members in KwaZulu-Natal who went on strike on Monday returned to work on Thursday.
However, trucks outside the Durban container terminal on Thursday morning were backed up as the workers attempted to get rid of the backlog caused by the three-day Transnet workers’ strike.
”They don’t want congestion in the terminal so they make them park outside,” said Terry Hutson, editor of the Ports and Ships website.
The strike by Transnet workers affected commuter trains in Durban, the container terminal and the port of Richards Bay.
Metrorail spokesperson Thandi Mlangeni said commuter trains in Durban were running as usual.
Employees of the parastatal in the Eastern Cape would strike on February 13 if a settlement was not reached, union leaders said.
They will be followed by their colleagues in the Northern and Western Cape on February 14. Those in Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo will join the protests on February 20.
Should the dispute still not be resolved, unions have threatened a national strike on March 6. – Sapa