/ 2 May 2006

Security employers must ‘swallow their pride’

The ”arrogance” displayed by security-industry employers in their stalemate with striking workers is a cause of concern, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Tuesday.

Fourteen unions have entered into an agreement with employers, but members of the South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) are still on strike.

Mdladlana called on employers to realise that their agreement with the 14 other unions, involving an 8,3% salary raise as opposed to the 11% demanded by Satawu, ”was not worth the paper it was written on”.

”[It] is not implementable as there is no sectoral determination,” said Mdladlana.

”I therefore appeal to employers to swallow their pride and return to the negotiating table. Satawu is the majority union according to Labour Department official records. This follows that no agreement can hold without their involvement,” he said.

The minister went on to assume that because security employers’ profits are not affected by the strike that continues to cause harm to ordinary South Africans they therefore do not care.

”Employers must remember that it is the South African public that contributes to their riches,” he said.

The strike has involved violence, which prompted Mdladlana to be critical of the union last week.

”The actions of these people are a serious indictment on a union that was founded on democratic principles,” he said after about 500 striking security guards were arrested in Durban for ransacking the offices of the Department of Labour.

Strike to continue

Meanwhile, Satawu said on Tuesday it will continue striking until its demands are met.

”We are waiting for the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration [CCMA] to call us back to the negotiating table. Our members will be on strike until they get what they want,” Satawu president Ezrom Mabyana said.

He said the CCMA is expected to call the union and the employer back to the table for negotiations later this week.

Mabyana said reports of violence by Satawu members since April 1 were ”unjustified” and that the strike will not be called off, despite violence in KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend.

”The people in Durban were provoked by the police at the Department of Labour office and that is why they reacted violently. We are in control of our people. They know that we condemn violence.”

Satawu’s deputy president, June Dube, said the union is not responsible for acts of violence during the security-guard strike. He said Satawu members are provoked by police and therefore react violently.

”If our members are shot at and provoked, they react. They do not start the violence. On the trains or at the department offices, they were provoked by the police. Some of the people arrested are not even members of our union,” added Dube.

Mabyana said if an agreement is not reached, the strike will be called off only when the union can no longer control its members. ”We are in control of our members. We will definitely call off the strike if we lose control of them, but we can control them. They listen to us at meetings.”

Mabyana said he is certain that an agreement can be reached this week. — Sapa