As the strike by Transnet employees in KwaZulu-Natal ended on Wednesday, four trade unions handed over a memorandum to Transnet management.
The three-day strike against state-owned Transnet’s plans to restructure culminated in a march in Durban, attracting an estimated 5 000 workers belonging to the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), South African Railway and Harbours Union, United Transport and Allied Trade Union and the United Association of South Africa, according to the unions.
In the memorandum, directed to Transnet CEO Maria Ramos, the unions urged management to respect processes and structures established for the purposes of negotiating, such as the Transnet restructuring committee and the business-unit restructuring committees.
“Management must stop using excuses for keeping restructuring issues out of these structures. In this regard, we demand full compliance with the national framework agreement. Otherwise there must be no restructuring,” the memorandum said.
“Agreement must be reached on all aspects of restructuring and its impact, per business unit, before any changes are made to a business unit,” the memorandum said.
Despite several statements reiterating that the restructuring will not result in job losses, Transnet has not said how it will prevent retrenchments should the privatisation of non-core assets — such as Autopax, Blue Train and Freightdynamics — be effected.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions — to which Satawu is affiliated — said the restructuring should not be “dictated by narrow considerations of cutting costs and maximising profits”.
For the year ended March 2005, Transnet’s turnover increased by 6% to R46,2-billion, while operating profit was R6-billion, bouncing back from a loss of R6,3-billion in the previous financial year.
At the time, the state-held entity said a five-year infrastructure investment plan of R40-billion will address the backlog in the maintenance and upgrading of rail and port infrastructure.
Transnet spokesperson John Dludlu could not say how the parastatal is planning to avert the next blocks of strikes, which are expected to see thousands of workers in the remaining seven provinces — including Gauteng, Limpopo and Western Cape — downing tools this month.
Asked how much money Transnet has lost due to the action in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, including at the ports of Durban and Richards Bay, Dludlu said the company is communicating with its customers and “believe they have an understanding of the situation”, but did not give the figures.
The trade unions, which claim to represent the majority of Transnet’s 85 000 workforce, said they expect a response to their demands within seven days.
They previously stated that failure to find a workable solution would lead to a national strike on March 6. It remains to be seen whether workers at South African Airways and SA Express will participate, given that they are currently not in the Transnet bargaining council. — I-Net Bridge