Post Office, retailers deliver under cover of darkness
MANY retailers, along with the South African Post Office, are having to make their deliveries under the cover of darkness for fear of violence by striking workers in the truck and freight industry.
The strike involving about 20,000 drivers and related staff has run for more than a week and a half. Talks to end the industrial action remained deadlocked yesterday.
The employer body, the Road Freight Employers Association, said striking unions turned down an 18% pay hike, which was to be received over a two-year period. As part of this proposal, they would get another increase in the third year. The unions had been holding out for a 12% salary increase.
In the meantime, retailers and other institutions are focused on moving goods in the dark.
Yesterday, Pick n Pay, Tiger Brands and Woolworths said their inventories were running low.
Pick n Pay said the strike had affected its store stock levels, even though contingency plans were in place. The company’s operations director, Neal Quirk, said that this was particularly apparent in fresh produce and poultry.
“We started to work on contin- gency plans before the strike began, and are trying our best to get stock into stores and to minimise disruption to our customers.
“We are monitoring the situation on an hourly basis and responding to it as best we can,” he said.
Mr Quirk said consumers could call Pick n Pay’s customer care line and the company would do its best to resolve out-of-stock issues.
Peter Matlare, CEO of SA’s biggest food producer, Tiger Brands, said the company had resorted to night deliveries to ensure that goods arrived at retail outlets.
Woolworths said that it had experienced some absenteeism in certain areas as a result of the strike, but had made adequate contingency plans to deliver fresh produce to all its stores.
The postal service said it was managing to move mail between SA’s major cities, despite pressure from the strikers.
“We make deliveries at night. It is something we have done for a while and it helps to limit delays,” the South African Post Office’s spokesman, Lungile Lose, said.
However, despite the night deliveries, there were concerns over economic sluggishness if the strike persisted after the weekend.
“The truck and freight industry may manage to avoid costs by making purchasing decisions and ordering goods after the strike ends. But after a while these companies have to invest and the strike gets in their way,” economist Mike Schussler said in an interview yesterday.
“What it and other strikes, the mining ones currently mean for the economy, is a problem. The chances of a recession by year-end are increasing. Before the strike, the chance may have been between 5% and 10%. The chance now is about 20%,” he said.
Also facing pressure were the country’s commercial banks.
“Yes, we had problems with replenishing ATMs over the weekend. Since Monday morning we have made arrangements and started to replenish ATMs,” said Capitec Bank spokesman Charl Nel.
Fuel pumps were running dry yesterday because the public was panic buying.
The price of 93 octane petrol increased by 21c/ l on Wednesday. The price of 95 octane petrol rose 23c/ l. With Annaleigh Vallie and Phakamisa Ndzamela