Mineworkers’ union NUM on Wednesday formally notified Eskom of its intention to go on strike next week, while trade union Solidarity rejected the parastatal’s latest wage offer.
“Today [Wednesday] we started mobilising our members for the strike,” National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said.
He dismissed the possibility their industrial action may be illegal as Eskom was an essential service.
“We will cross that bridge when we get to it. We have already notified them of our intention to go on strike,” said Seshoka.
“They cannot tie us to a tree and then tell us we can’t do anything when abused, because we cannot untie ourselves. We are going on strike and they cannot do anything about that.”
Seshoka said Eskom’s latest offer was an 8,5% wage increase and a R1 000 housing allowance. Unions wanted 9% and a R2 500 housing allowance.
Seshoka said the NUM would have been willing to compromise on the wage increase if management had acceded to its housing allowance demand.
He said union leaders were on Wednesday preparing for the strike.
Solidarity would not accept Eskom’s offer as it currently stood and had pushed through certain revisions for the power utility to consider.
“We need more time to discuss with our members. We believe there’s still room for negotiations,” Solidarity’s general secretary Flip Buys told a press briefing in Pretoria.
Buys said obstacles in the way of a settlement had to be addressed.
Eskom had been given until Monday to respond to revisions, including a minimum service agreement, which the union said had to be in place before 2011 wage negotiations.
The union also wanted additional housing benefits and an external audit of Eskom to determine the state of relations between workers and management.
Solidarity also called for a probe into spending patterns at the power utility after it bought World Cup tickets for R12-million and paid R9,6-million in performance bonuses to directors and senior managers.
A spokesperson for Eskom’s third union, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), Alex Mashilo, said they were still consulting members on what action to take.
NUM represents about 40% of Eskom’s 30 000 employees. Solidarity has 23%, while Numsa represents 20%. The remaining 5 100 workers are non-unionised.
Eskom human resources director Bhabhalazi Bulunga said the parastatal had not received NUM’s strike notice.
“Even if they notify us of the strike, it remains illegal. It’s like telling someone you are going to murder them, that doesn’t make the act legal.”
He said NUM was risking getting its members arrested.
“We are an essential service, and therefore the security agencies will take over and arrest anyone engaging in illegal activities.”
He said Eskom was unable to meet with Solidarity and Numsa on Wednesday.
“We were busy with internal meetings, trying to put contingency plans in place in light of the rumours of the strike.” –Sapa