The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) on Wednesday dismissed criticism of its members trashing city streets as ”class-based responses”.
”When a street cleaner upturns a rubbish bag, does it not occur to journalists and commentators that this might be an act of defiance, of one being visible, of not being taken for granted?” Samwu general secretary Mthandeki Nhlapo asked in a statement.
”Part of any industrial action is to make visible what it is that workers do, to force an awareness on the public of the value of these workers, not just as producers of goods, but as human beings who have lives, who have families to support, who have dreams.
”As a union we do not condone this action, but we at least try to understand it.”
The reaction of the media, some commentators such as Tim Modise, and, ”sadly, some of our political allies”, was misguided.
This was an apparent reference to Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana’s condemnation of the violent protests.
The union said it had called on its members not to trash streets and acknowledged this was ”unpopular and can distract attention away from the central and just demands of our pay and conditions campaign”.
But the reaction to unruly behaviour, which saw at least 25 protesters arrested for public violence since Monday and several injured when the police fired rubber bullets to disperse people, was ”exaggerated”, said Samwu.
”Many of our members are invisible to the public. They clean the streets at night, and gather the trash that the public expects to be taken away, and often at great human cost.
”Our members do the work that many of the commentators would never dream of doing. Maybe Tim Modise and others should spend just one shift with the city night cleaners and open their eyes to the appalling conditions they have to endure.
”We collect dead animals and worse on the roadside, we unblock sewers, we fix water pipes in the freezing cold, respond to emergencies and much more.”
Yet, the gap between the workers and their managers remained ”as wide as it was under apartheid”.
”We cannot help thinking that the reaction to trashing is a very class-based response,” said Samwu.
”What is it that upsets the commentators? That the streets that they drive through are littered? Have they never been into squatter camps, or places where victims of xenophobia have been dumped?”
Samwu said the ”very small number of workers who trash” was often those involved in street cleaning.
”They know they will probably have to clean up the mess they are creating, but as long as they remain invisible, undervalued, underpaid and subjected to appalling conditions, they will use whatever means they have to draw attention to their plight. ”
New wage offer
Meanwhile, leaders of the municipal workers were due to meet on Wednesday to consider a new pay offer.
The union is demanding a 15% increase and said 70% of municipal workers earn less than the R5 000 monthly minimum wage it is demanding. Employers have tabled a revised offer of an effective 13 % increase.
The three-day-old strike is the latest stand-off between President Jacob Zuma and the unions who helped sweep him to power in an April election and now want the president to fulfil his promises to help lift the living standards of the poor.
South Africa is suffering its first recession since 1992, which unions say has hit the country’s poor hardest. Unemployment is rising, with more than four million South Africans without jobs, according to official data.
Economists believe the higher-than-inflation wage settlements reached in a number of sectors this month could strain Africa’s biggest economy further down the road. – Sapa, Reuters