The CCMA has granted the United National Transport Union (UNTU), and SATAWU, permission to strike. The Union has notified the Employer PRASA that it intends to start its strike at 00h01 on 4 April 2016. The strike will cause massive economic disruptions and probable violent protests in the major centres.
“Even at this late hour we are doing all we can to avoid striking, but faced with a recalcitrant Prasa, we might have no option. The company did not even bother to turn up to the CCMA’s conciliatory hearing,” on 14 March 2016 says Steve Harris, UNTU’s General Secretary.
“We apologise in advance to the workers of South Africa for any inconvenience we might cause them. We are asking for their support because—if it has to happen—our strike will be far more than an industrial squabble. It will be a protest against a Government Employer that won’t govern—a Government Employer that has no interest in its own employees, or in working people.
“The cause of the problems that Prasa’s workers are experiencing goes right to the top— to a Transport Minister and Chairman of the Board who won’t talk to Labour. All Prasa’s employees hear from the Minister are its announcements about the hundreds of billions of rands it is planning to spend on rail equipment.
If the Minister and those responsible to manage PRASA believes that it can run Prasa without the respect and co-operation of its employees, it has to be put right.
“UNTU does not talk politics. But the majority of our membership feel cheated and let down and believe their efforts to ensure the business continuous to run, under extreme conditions, are not valued and appreciated”.
UNTU alleges 15 broken agreements as further reasons for its threat to strike. These include:
• Imposed salary disparities
• Prasa’s reneging on performance agreements
• Arbitrary changes to working hours, overtime and leave conditions
• Irregular recruitment practices
• The exploitation of contract workers
• The arbitrary redeployment of staff at Shosholoza Meyl
“Prasa’s workers understand that their company is strapped for cash and needs to save money.
Had the company bothered to speak to Labour it would have found us conciliatory,” says Steve Harris. “Instead of doing that, the company has opted to ride shotgun and cheat its workers at every turn. Government and Prasa have to be taught that cheating workers does not save money—it costs money, big money.”
For further detail contact:
SA Harris – General Secretary UNTU
Cell: 082 566 5516
