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Johannesburg - On Monday the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu) – whose members are allowing the Transnet strike to drag on – warned of sympathy strikes, but the union is waiting in the wings for Transnet to make a small concession that could end the strike.
But Transnet is stalling, while the strike is starting to have a serious impact on various sectors.
The deciduous fruit industry is about to lose more than R1bn owing to lost exports, and various bulk mining companies have told their customers that they cannot fulfil their contracts. They include Exxaro Resources (which exports coal), ArcelorMittal, Xstrata (which exports ferrochrome and coal), and manganese producer Samancor.
On Monday the petroleum industry, which last week struggled to deliver supplies to Botswana, also warned that from this week it would experience problems with inland services if the strike continued much longer.
Avhaphani Tshifularo, executive director of the South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia), said that no storage sites had yet run dry, but the situation could quickly deteriorate if the strike lasted much longer or widened.
Satawu said that on Monday it had issued a notice of a sympathy strike to the Richards Bay coal terminal – which has so far been able to keep up its export programme thanks to stockpiled supplies in the port – as well as to shipping companies like Safmarine, AP Moller-Maersk, Bidfreight Port Operations, Grindrod, Hazard Marine and Hermes Ship Chandlers.
If the strike is not over by June 1 sympathy strikes at these companies could be expected, Satawu general secretary Zenzo Mahlangu said on Monday evening.
But there are indications that with a small concession Satawu will accept the settlement.
The union is particularly unhappy with workers' basic wages being eroded by non-pensionable benefits.
Mahlangu said members would not start work until they received a concession in this regard.
- Sake24.com
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