/ 23 June 2006

Inside the strike settlement

This week the bloodstained three-month security guards’ strike was finally settled on an effective automatic pay rise of R232, or 19,89% for the lowest paid workers and annual increments for the next three years of 9,25%, 7,25% and 7,25% respectively. Nerine Kahn, director of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), walks the Mail & Guardian down the long road to mediation.

April 21: The CCMA initiated a Section 150 intervention under the Labour Relations Act. ”In the beginning, we followed CCMA policy and wrote letters to say we were available,” said Kahn.

May 11: The Labour Court dismissed employers’ second application to have the strike declared illegal, which Kahn said had galvanised conciliation. ”It’s a tragedy when a dispute like this is resolved in the legal way — you want people to negotiate and find each other.”

May 12: The CCMA convened ”exploratory talks”. Kahn helped contact the parties, departing from her stated objective not to get involved in mediation: ”When I came in as director I said I was not going to involve myself in mediating national strikes. If the director is busy mediating, the CCMA doesn’t get run. Initially, my main role was getting the parties to the table, because we realised that they wanted the CCMA director to talk them through the issues.”

May 19: Talks deadlock as the two striking unions, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) and the Transport and Allied Workers Union (Tawu), refuse to suspend the strike and employers insist on their right to discipline strikers. The CCMA announced that the parties had moved further apart.

At this point, Kahn said she felt undermined because she had no legal authority. ”Under Section 150, all I can do is say that the CCMA is offering to assist you and the parties have to consent. The consent came from both sides with preconditions, which made it really difficult.

”On the night we deadlocked I was devastated because the spokesperson for the 14 non-striking unions just looked at me and said: ‘Madame director, my members are dying. What do you want me to do?’ I felt totally disempowered.”

May 20 to June 5: Satawu plans solidarity strikes and the South African Communist Party calls for Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to intervene. During this period, Kahn said her approach was ”just to walk away from the parties”.

”A few days later, the parties started phoning me and saying, ‘What are you doing?’ I said: ‘Nothing.’ But I was talking to relevant stakeholders about the national crisis and how to get resolution. I approached Cosatu and Business Unity directly and spoke to other union federations.

”We also dealt a lot with the employers. Satawu always said they were prepared to come to the table, whether or not they were going to make any movement. The employers at many stages said they were not coming.”

Busa met the employers separately and asked Frans Barker, Chamber of Mines chief negotiator, to help mediate.

Said Kahn: ”Busa played a different role from Cosatu — Frans actually helped me in the negotiations. Cosatu’s role was much more in caucusing with Satawu and Tawu. Cosatu president Willie Madisha got involved and played an invaluable role.”

June 12: The mediators believed the strike could be resolved, but the parties adjourned to clarify issues.

June 19: Parties meet to settle and Kahn feels her most optimistic. ”On Monday, the parties said they would leave by 6pm, but when they didn’t leave, I knew they wanted to settle.”

Kahn described the negotiations dynamic as ”unusual” because the CCMA had to mediate between a triangle of interests — the striking unions, non-striking unions and employers.

”You make an offer to these guys and they all agree. But, while you’re doing that, one group goes to talk to the other and gets them to disagree.”

Barker, Kahn and CCMA senior commissioner Meshack Ravuku worked together on an agreement that would satisfy all parties.

”We took a big picture and said: ‘These are the areas of absolute sticking point and these are Satawu’s needs — maybe we can’t recognise them on this grade, but we can on that grade, and that’s okay, because that’s where Satawu has the bulk of its members.”

At 8.55pm, CCMA mediators presented each party with a proposed wage model and told them that they had 30 minutes to consider it. ”We didn’t expect the parties take it to 100%, but they were very open and were looking for resolution.”

June 20: Parties continued negotiations from the previous day. At 6.50am the talks climaxed when an employer negotiator said: ”Okay, I’ll agree to that percentage.”

Said Kahn: ”I’m really relieved the CCMA resolved the strike. Ultimately, the social partners, business and labour, came and supported the CCMA and worked together and that’s how we resolved it. They were absolutely incredible.”