The countrywide road freight workers’ strike is to continue on Thursday as no resolution was reached during wage talks on Wednesday, the Road Freight Employers’ Association (FREA) said.
“The meeting ended at 8.40pm and we agreed to resume talks tomorrow [Thursday] morning,” said spokesperson Magretia Brown-Engelbrecht.
“The aim of both parties is to finalise talks tomorrow.”
At 5pm, the wage offer made to striking workers was increased to 8% across the board, but the four unions involved in the strike did not accept it.
“The employers have just increased the offer by 0,5% but that is ridiculous,” said South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) spokesperson Zenzo Mahlangu.
“We are not on strike for just 0,5% — we will not accept it. I hope they will shift with upward figures soon … otherwise we won’t stop striking,” Mahlangu said
Initially, the RFEA offered an increase of 7,5% across the board for 2011 and a further 7,5% increase for 2012.
The unions — the Transport and Allied Workers’ Union of South Africa, the Professional Transport Workers’ Union, Satawu and the Motor Transport Workers’ Union — are demanding a 20% increase allocated over a two-year period, for example 10% in 2011 and 10% in 2012.
Warning
The disruptive countrywide strike, in which several people have been injured, entered its third day on Wednesday.
About 65 000 workers were participating.
Union members earlier marched through central Johannesburg and delivered a memorandum to the RFEA.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa was prompted to issue a warning to protesters that acts of intimidation and violence would not be tolerated.
It came in the wake of alleged intimidation and the destruction of property, allegedly by striking truck drivers.
Four people were seriously injured after a truck driver, in an attempt to avoid being attacked by striking workers, veered into the taxi they were travelling in. Other trucks were burned and looted.
Eyewitness News reported that trucks at the Cleveland and Kaalfontein train stations were being stoned, as well as trucks along Ontdekkers Road. — Sapa