A national strike planned for Wednesday by bus workers’ unions was prevented by the Labour Court in Cape Town on Tuesday when it granted an interdict to the South African Bus Employers’ Association (Sabea).
Sabea president Berry Gei said the court ordered the unions to file responding papers before April 23. The matter will be heard on April 30, and any strike before April 30 will be illegal and unprotected.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), the Transport and Allied Workers’ Union and the Transport and Omnibus Workers’ Union had planned to go on strike on Wednesday.
The strike action would have put additional strain on Johannesburg’s public-transport system, which is already chaotic due to ongoing strike action by Metrobus employees.
Satawu national coordinator Zakhele Sibeko said the leadership was studying the order and would later make an announcement.
The national strike was to follow collapsed wage negotiations between the unions and Sabea this week.
Similar action undertaken since January this year by Metrobus employees has significantly inconvenienced many Johannesburg commuters, especially those who rely on the public transport system.
‘Last resort’
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Randall Howard, Satawu’s general secretary, said the decision to go ahead with the strike had been a last resort.
“As unions and as workers, we are also members of communities. We don’t go out and strike willy-nilly. We realise that our mothers, fathers and brothers have to travel to work [using public transport].
“It’s difficult when we have to take a decision like this, when it affects ordinary people who are dependent on the system, people who don’t have the choice to take a car. But our members have the right to protest … we have the right to struggle for what we believe is right,” Howard said.
Issues in dispute include salary adjustments, better retrenchment packages for employees, and general working conditions, such as bus safety, excessive working hours and insufficient overtime pay.
Negotiations between labour and Sabea started on January 29 this year and came to an unsuccessful end on March 15. Satawu represents two-thirds of the striking employees.
The minimum wage earned by entry-level employees is just more than R2Â 200, an amount that cannot be called a living wage, the union said.
“The gap is huge” between the 13% wage increase demanded by workers and the 5% increase Sabea has offered, Howard said.
“The employers in this industry have always banked on [eventually] offering 8% to avert the strike. But in 2007, the mood is different, the determination is different. Workers are hell-bent on achieving victory over employers that have taken advantage [of them],” he said.
The unions involved in the labour dispute represent employees of major bus companies such as Greyhound, Megabus, Algoa, Mayibuye, Golden Arrow and Putco.
Barry Gie, president of Sabea, which represents these bus companies, spoke to the Mail & Guardian Online on Monday, when he was “working as hard as I can to negate the need for strike action”.
He said a national strike would affect the public nationally, but even more severely in Johannesburg, where Putco works locally commuting people around the city. “The municipal Metrobuses have closed down indefinitely. If you took Putco out of the scene, there would be no [local] buses operating in Johannesburg.”
No end in sight
Meanwhile, the impasse between the city-run Metrobus and the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) shows no clear indication of reaching a resolution.
“We are willing to get the buses running yesterday already,” said Gabu Tugwana, spokesperson for the City of Johannesburg, which has taken over negotiation from Metrobus’s management. “But it is not up to us; it is for the union to decide.”
The strike action by Metrobus employees in Johannesburg started when workers demanded to be paid out for accumulated sick leave. Other grievances have since surfaced, including issues with retrenched shop stewards and certain disciplinary procedures.
The situation was nearing resolution a few weeks ago, when most of the 971 striking workers returned to work. But a violent incident near Krugersdorp, in which two bus drivers were killed, caused Metrobus to suspend its services for safety reasons.
It was suspected that striking Metrobus employees were responsible for the attacks.
Following the decision to suspend Metrobus services, Samwu again raised its original concerns that were discussed previously, Tugwana said.
He emphasised that the city’s decision to suspend services was due to its main concern for the safety of the 90 000 commuters who use Metrobus every day.
“We can’t put them at risk,” he said. “We don’t want people to get petrol-bombed and attacked and all that [when using the buses]. That would make us a very irresponsible city … People mustn’t lose trust in the public transport system.”
Many commuters are nonetheless frustrated with the bus system. Sthembile Gasa, who lives in Auckland Park and travels by Metrobus to work in Rosebank, said commuting is a “nightmare” each morning.
She has had to take taxis since the bus strikes began, and said “there are more people than taxis, and the lines are ridiculous”. Gasa first has to make her way from Auckland Park to Bree Street in the inner city, because taxis to Rosebank only run from there.
Even if she leaves home at 6am, most taxis only arrive by 8.30am, she said. “It has changed my morning routine quite drastically, and I get to work later than I usually do.”
Gasa feels the city’s reasons for suspending Metrobus services are not entirely justifiable. “They say the buses won’t run until they feel safe. But safety is basically relative if you are doing anything in Johannesburg. Now we are the ones being put at a disadvantage.”
“If a bus driver gets murdered another three months from now, will they go on another strike?” Gasa asked. “Who knows when they will feel safe?”