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Seifsa withdraws Solidarity lockout

Johannesburg - The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa) on Monday withdrew its lockout against Solidarity, the only union not going to strike in the steel and metals sector.

The federation made the decision after its CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba met Solidarity general secretary Gideon du Plessis on Monday afternoon, Seifsa said in a statement.

Seifsa served notice of the lockout last week to all unions in the metals and engineering sector. The strike by about 220 000 workers was expected to begin on Tuesday.

Nyatsumba, who asked for the meeting with Du Plessis, appreciated that Solidarity was concerned about the poor state of the economy, including the ailing metals and engineering industries.

The Seifsa CEO hoped the other unions which had given notice to go on strike could be persuaded not to, or end it as soon as possible.

Du Plessis said in a statement Solidarity was impressed with Seifsa's decision that only strikers would be locked out.

"Moreover, we regard this turn of events as a welcome accomplishment for collective bargaining and as a model of how employers and trade unions should work together,” said Du Plessis.

"Solidarity and Seifsa furthermore agreed to continue with salary negotiations immediately."

A deadlock in negotiations led to a strike notice from majority union the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers' Union (Ceppwawu), and the General Industries Workers' Union of SA.

On Thursday, Numsa general secretary Karl Cloete said the union's 220 000 members in the sector would go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday.

The union's demands include a one-year wage agreement with a 12% wage increase.

Employers have tabled a three-year wage settlement offer of between 7% and 8% for different levels of workers in the first year, and CPI-linked increases for 2015 and 2016.

The Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) on Monday said it was disappointed that Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant had decided to meet Numsa on Monday, but not other trade unions.

The other unions are Uasa, the SA Equity Workers Association, the Metal and Electoral Workers Union of SA, and Ceppwawu.

Numsa and the other unions are members of the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council, Fedusa general secretary Dennis George said in a statement.

"It is unfortunate that government has not learnt lessons from the platinum belt dispute, where government also tried unconventional methods to resolve the wage dispute," he said.

"It is important to involve all parties to the dispute in any interventions, as it may create mistrust if government intervenes on a piece-meal approach."

Fedusa called on government to rather follow the procedure stipulated in the Labour Relations Act, and with the institutions established, to deal with wage disputes.

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