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Johannesburg - Insisting that it had exhausted all options in the Pikitup strike, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) said on Tuesday it was concerned by the scathing attacks the ANC in Gauteng launched on it.
The union denied that Pikitup was sabotaging the local government election as the provincial ANC had claimed.
Samwu began its strike, which has left the streets of Johannesburg littered, on April 7.
"We deny reports that Samwu is sabotaging the ANC election campaign because all issues that our members are on strike about have been on the table before the elections had been," Samwu said.
It said it had been criticised in the media and had never been approached internally to discuss issues that may have been of concern to the ANC.
"We therefore express grave concern and disappointment over the ANC's behaviour in recent weeks, as they have not followed agreed protocol," the union said.
"We encourage the ANC to desist from attacking the union on employer/employee issues," it said, adding that all the unions embarked on strikes based on genuine worker concerns and had nothing to do with election politics.
Samwu said it had exhausted "all options available to us" and had been waiting for management, the City of Johannesburg and/or the ANC to intervene since 2009 and listen to workers demands.
The union denied that Pikitup was sabotaging the local government election as the provincial ANC had claimed.
Samwu began its strike, which has left the streets of Johannesburg littered, on April 7.
"We deny reports that Samwu is sabotaging the ANC election campaign because all issues that our members are on strike about have been on the table before the elections had been," Samwu said.
It said it had been criticised in the media and had never been approached internally to discuss issues that may have been of concern to the ANC.
"We therefore express grave concern and disappointment over the ANC's behaviour in recent weeks, as they have not followed agreed protocol," the union said.
"We encourage the ANC to desist from attacking the union on employer/employee issues," it said, adding that all the unions embarked on strikes based on genuine worker concerns and had nothing to do with election politics.
Samwu said it had exhausted "all options available to us" and had been waiting for management, the City of Johannesburg and/or the ANC to intervene since 2009 and listen to workers demands.
