More than 2 000 workers congregated in Beyers Naude Square in Johannesburg on Friday morning, the most recent demonstration in the month-long wage strike undertaken by contract cleaning workers around the country.
“We were not allowed to march in Johannesburg,” said Ronnie Mamba, spokesperson for the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), “so we held the demonstration in Beyers Naude Square.”
Simultaneous marches were under way in towns throughout South Africa, with total numbers expected to have reached about 30 000 people.
The strike action, which began on August 1, reached deadlock in the middle of last month and the impasse shows no signs of being broken, despite both sides being “hopeful” a compromise will soon be reached.
Vincent Monyamane, a spokesperson for the National Contract Cleaners’ Association (NCCA), said “if both parties exerted themselves and consciously tried to find a solution, they would”.
Dave Reynolds of Supercare, a company that contracts out cleaning staff, said the deadlock came about because employees demanded a 14% to 17% wage increase, while employers were only willing to settle on 6,5%.
Monyamane explained that the salaries of workers in the cleaning sector have to relate to the CPIX inflationary measure. “CPIX is about 5%. If we grant an increase above that, we have to recover it from our clients.”
“We are approached by clients who say they are giving enough money to the contracting companies … These companies don’t have workers’ interests in heart,” Dolly Mlotshwa, Satawu’s national contracting coordinator, told the Mail & Guardian Online.
Mamba agreed, claiming “employers pocket millions of rands these contracts create … they pretend they are employing people, but they just don’t care about them”.
“Some people earn less going to work than being on strike,” Mamba said, “like a job in Johannesburg that pays an average of R20 a day, and costs you R22 to get there.”
Monyamane said despite the strike action, the NCCA is continuing to provide services. “Absenteeism is not that much,” he said. “We are allowed to provide replacement labour, and we do.”
Many contract cleaners do not belong to any union and have thus not joined the strike. Only 20% of Supercare’s staff are engaged in the strike action, according to Reynolds, but the majority is not.
Mamba feels “workers are under-unionised and this exposes them to abuse”. He also said Friday’s demonstration was not so much about the effect it would have on the wage negotiation process, but rather about workers’ morale.
Though many striking workers are concerned about not having enough money to pay this month’s rent, “their spirits are still up and they won’t give up until they get what they want”, Satawu’s Mlotshwa agreed.
Regarding the negotiation process, Mamba said “we have to make concessions, but they [employers] also have to”. And since both parties have been unable to reach a compromise, “where things stand, an employment conditions commission set up by the Department of Labour will have to make the final decision”, said Reynolds.