Representatives from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and the National Petroleum Employers’ Association resumed talks on Saturday in a bid to resolve a pay strike which led to countrywide fuel shortages and panic buying.
Talks were scheduled to begin at about 10am at the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg said Keith Jacobs, Ceppwawu spokesperson.
He said he was ”very optimistic” and hoped to come to a settlement on Saturday.
Jacobs said the ”first prize” would be a 9,5% increase but a national bottom-line of 8,5% had been established.
Other issues on the table was a proposed increase in maternity leave from four to six months and the establishment of a standardised 40-hour working week.
Jacobs said drivers had told him they would be willing to go out and deliver petrol the minute a settlement was reached.
He said the drivers told him: ”We are willing to get into the trucks now.”
Jacobs said the union had repeatedly informed employers and the public about the imminent strike since June 27.
”Nobody listened,” he said, adding that people had thought; ”we are just a trade union, we can’t bring the country to a standstill”.
He said panic had only ensued when the first petrol station ran dry earlier this week.
Jacobs said the union could not be apologetic about the fuel shortages because stopping production was the workers’ only legal way of being heard.
Jacobs also dismissed the General Industries Workers’ Union of South Africa (Giwusa) claim that they had been invited to take part in the strike by Ceppwawu.
Jacobs said Ceppwawu had called on all workers in related industries to join in secondary strike action.
Giwusa spokesperson John Appolis said they had joined the strike on Friday because they had 90 members working at the Langlaagte Engen depot.
National Petroleum Employers’ Association spokesperson Alfie Ngubo confirmed that talks were to resume on Saturday.
He said he could not comment if a renewed offer would be put on the table until he had engaged with the unions themselves.
‘Trucks are on the road’
Meanwhile, there had been a slight improvement in petrol supplies, oil companies BP and Engen said on Saturday.
”Trucks are on the road endlessly delivering to sites,” said BP spokesperson Zipporah Mathoa.
She said the company was in catch-up mode and using contract workers to deliver the supplies.
However, ”a day lost is one too many”, she said.
Engen spokesperson Tonia Landsberg said the company’s problem was not one of supply, but distribution.
However, third party drivers were making up good time, she said.
There had been an improvement in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng which had been badly affected by fuel shortages on Friday.
About 10% of the company’s stations ran dry this week, said Landsberg.
She said Engen was chasing a rolling target — as outstanding deliveries were supplied, regular orders also still needed to be delivered. – Sapa