It was business as usual at Woolworths on Thursday in spite of the week-long strike called by the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu), the retailer claimed.
”There have been minimal disruptions and trading is normal,” Zyda Rylands, chief operating officer at Woolworths, said in a statement.
”A minority of our staff have been encouraged to protest for organisational rights,” she added.
However, the union — which Woolworths refuses to recognise — said the strike had affected trading. It further rejected the management’s claims that its staff was being intimidated.
Woolworths had been consistent in its approach to union representation, Rylands said.
”We respect the right of our employees to belong to a union of their choice and have stated that, as guided by the Labour Relations Act, we will recognise any union that demonstrates sufficient representation of our employees,” Rylands said.
Woolworths and the union entered into a settlement agreement in 2005 relating to a joint verification process with which the union did not comply, she added. ”At the last verification process in November 2007, union representativeness was confirmed at less than 15%.”
Rylands said there had been reports of ”considerable intimidation” of staff to support the stayaway.
”It is also unfortunate that there are incidence of serious breaches of the picket rules agreed jointly at the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration],” she said.
Saccawu began a week-long strike at Woolworths on Wednesday. It has demanded that Woolworths recognise it as being a sufficiently representative union. It has also demanded an end to unilaterally determined increases.
”Management will always say that the strike is not affecting trading,” said Saccawu’s Thabo Mahlangu. ”But the company is handing out pamphlets to customers in some of its stores saying it apologises for any inconvenience as a result of industrial action — so how can it be trading as normal?”
Mahlangu denied that any intimidation had taken place.
”No one is intimidating anyone — those who are picketing are doing so by choice … In fact, it’s the company management that comes out of the stores to take photographs of the workers.”
There had been no negotiations between the company and Saccawu since the strike began, he added. — Sapa