Split over Metrorail strike

Johannesburg - The train drivers' strike will continue into next week, even though support appears to be dwindling, the United Transport and Allied Trade Union said on Friday.

"At this point in time we have not lifted the strike. It will continue next week," said Utatu deputy general secretary Pieter Greyling in rejecting a claim by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) that the five-day old strike was over.

Greyling said a general meeting of members would be called on Tuesday in the Western Cape, the province where the strike appears to have been most successful, to discuss the way forward.

Earlier, Cosatu's Western Cape provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said in a statement that Cosatu had "intervened in the strike and secured the return to work by striking workers on Monday".

Greyling said Cosatu could not speak on behalf of Utatu, which was aligned to the Federation of Unions of South Africa.

He said there had still been no movement from management on the pay dispute, which relates to the calculation of overtime, which had led to the strike.

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) said 86% of Metrorail trains countrywide were running during the 8:00 peak on Friday, a "major improvement" on earlier in the week.

Spokesperson Tiro Holele said the 8:00 figure in Gauteng was 98%, KwaZulu-Natal 96%, and the Eastern Cape 100%.

In the Western Cape, which has been hit by what Metrorail believes are strike-related cable thefts, barely half of scheduled trains were running at 8:00, but by 9:00 that figure had improved to 81%, Holele said.

"So we're improving as the day goes," he said.

He said all the cable damage had been repaired on Thursday night, and that this was making a "huge difference" to services. "Though we're not at a 100% optimal level, the company's functioning very well," he said. "We really hope that the strike ends soon."

He said Prasa stood by its position that it would not negotiate with Utatu, which was a minority union in Prasa.

Prasa was not taking a hard line, merely being pragmatic, he said.

The wage offer accepted by the Cosatu-affiliated South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union was what the company could reasonably afford.

It was only a small group that was holding out for more negotiations.

If Prasa acceded to the demand, it could end up spending the whole year negotiating pay rather than attending to operational issues, said Holele.

"We are not prepared to do that. It will not be done. There's nothing really that can be said," he said.

- Sapa