Workers and bosses set for annual strike-season rematch
IT’S strike season as workers in many sectors down tools or threaten to do so over wage demands while employers remain immovable, but some analysts believe that strikes in South Africa will never decline as workers will continually push for the wage gap to be reduced.
Unions are also rejecting multiyear agreements due to economic uncertainty, opting rather for one-year agreements. Employers, however, prefer multiyear agreements as they create stability.
A strike in the petroleum sector, where it is claimed 15 000 workers are on strike, is headed into its third week. The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration is facilitating the wage talks.
Employers, who are offering a 7% increase, have agreed to resume negotiations with the striking Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union, which is demanding a 9% increase.
About 1 200 members of the South African Chemical Workers’ Union, an affiliate of the National Council of Trade Unions, have been on strike since last week at the operations of the country’s largest generic pharmaceutical manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, in Port Elizabeth and East London in the Eastern Cape, and at Pharma-Q, in Industria West, Johannesburg. Their main demand is a 10% increase, while Aspen is offering 7%.
Sacwu general secretary Tumediso Modise said the union had declared a dispute with the companies after they refused a 7.5% increase in the first year and 7% increase in the second.
“Another issue was the companies’ refusal to include our union members at managerial level to be accommodated in the bargaining process. We also want contract workers who have worked in the company for more than three years to be included in the bargaining.”
Modise said the union was close to agreeing on a revised one-year offer of 7.5% but the other issues remained a sticking point.
The telecommunications sector is also facing possible labour disruptions. At Telkom, the Communications Workers’ Union is demanding an 11% wage increase, against an offer of 6%. The union also wants a moratorium on retrenchments for three years, and six months’ maternity leave.
At MTN, the union wants the company to stop outsourcing.
But the unprotected strike at Eskom seems to be resolved. The power utility said on Friday that it had struck a two-year agreement with trade unions Solidarity, which represents entry-level artisans up to senior artisans, and the National Union of Mineworkers, which mainly represents lower-paid workers.
The agreement includes an 8.5% increase for higher-paid employees and a 10% increase for lower-paid staff.
In addition, the housing allowance will rise by R260 a month this year, and a further R140 a month next year. This would bring the allowance to R3 000 a month over the next two years, Eskom said.
Eskom will also provide five months’ paid maternity leave. NOT A DROP: Jerry Ramatlapeng closes off a garage forecourt in Klipspruit, Soweto, after it ran out of fuel because of the petroleum strike
Solidarity deputy general secretary Deon Reyneke said this was the best offer Eskom had ever made.
Vuyo Bikitsha, electricity sector co-ordinator at the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, which also organises at Eskom, said: “We were not too far from signing the agreement, but we raised the issue of unequal pay between black and white employees, and men and women.” The union also wants workers who are on the lowest pay scale to be raised to the midpoint, and its members in managerial positions to get certain benefits that lower-paid workers receive, which Eskom has refused.
Mamokgethi Molopyane, a labour analyst at Creative Voodoo Consulting, said there would never be a decline in the number of strikes because the struggle of the workers was related to everyday social issues. “As long as the working class feel like their earnings are not improving, they’ll always be an area of disruption.”
She said a trend was to move from three-year deals to oneyear deals. “Ceppwawu and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union wanting a year-on-year deal will absolutely change the way negotiations are carried out. Because it’s going to be tougher now.”
She said this would make negotiations much more difficult, for workers as well as for employers, who would have to deal with the repercussions of negotiating every year.
South Africa’s workforce unrest has been cited as a deterrent to international investment. Gerhard Papenfus, CEO of the National Employers’ Association of South Africa, said it was a problem that unions did not know how to negotiate without going on strike. Unions needed to go into negotiations with reasonable demands.
Papenfus said the petrol strike was an example of employers unwilling to shift on their offer and unions being unsure how to respond. He said employers to some extent had become immune to the barrage of strikes.
Elize Strydom, a senior executive in charge of employment relations and chief negotiator for the Chamber of Mines, said that from the moment any industry started wage negotiations, a strike was possible.
Strydom said unions did not resort to strikes too eagerly, nor was it an easy option as a number of steps needed to be implemented before a strike could be deemed protected.
Amcu, the largest union in the platinum sector and which is in negotiations with employers, has demanded a one-year wage deal instead of the usual threeyear deal.
Strydom said this was symptomatic of the uncertainty the economy was experiencing. She suspected that unions did not want to tie themselves down to long-term deals.
Papenfus said negotiations in
Unions are rejecting multiyear agreements due to economic uncertainty It was a problem that unions did not know how to negotiate without going on strike
various sectors could have spillover effects. While negotiations in the motor industry were continuing, those in the metal and engineering industry in 2017 could also affect the vehicle sector.
Xhanti Payi, lead economist at Nascence Research, said there had been some growth in the petroleum sector, and the car manufacturing sector was returning to growth, but that strikes had put these sectors at risk again.
“We are trying to stabilise the economy; that [industrial action] puts the sector at risk at a time when we are looking at growth.”
He said a three-year wage cycle was good for stability, whereas a one-year cycle disrupted long-term planning.