Eskom arrogance fuelling staff strike

THE arrogance of Eskom towards its own employees is really annoying, and should be viewed as an enticement for workers to engage in an unprotected industrial action.

The industrial action might be similar to the one organised in the gold and coal sectors that took place in 1987.

The strike was organised and led by the then National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Approximately 360 000 mineworkers went on strike over wage and working conditions. It lasted for three weeks costing the Chamber of Mines close on R250 million.

The mood now of Eskom workers is that the same strike could be organised. Workers are disappointed and have started to feel disgruntled simply by the fact that parties in the collective bargaining are not making any progress in regard to wages.

To make matters worse, Eskom seems to have held labour unions negotiators to ransom. The power utility is negotiating in bad faith and continuously threatening employees, insisting on disciplinary measures against those who participated in an industrial action some weeks ago.

The NUM is on record saying it will only sign the wage agreement if Eskom removes the precondition of disciplinary action against employees.

In a provoking statement issued on August 13, Eskom attacked the NUM, saying the unions act in defiance of the law and needs of the country.

The very same “Campaign of Defiance of Unjust Laws of 1987” unleashed by the then NUM general secre- tary and now president, Cyril Ramaphosa, could be used to improve the working conditions of Eskom employees.

One of Eskom’s weapons used to threaten workers is that the power utility was designated an essential service in terms of the prescripts of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) precisely because the provision of power to the nation’s industrial and society needs is critical to sustaining and growing the future of the economy and creating jobs.

All Eskom employees are, as a result, prohibited from engaging in any form of industrial action or any action that retards or obstructs Eskom’s operations. In addition, non-essential service employees are bound by the provisions of the LRA which prescribe the procedures to be followed to secure protected (from disciplinary action or job loss) strike action.

Not only did workers defy labour laws during the strike of 1987, their activities reflected a sense that the edifice of apartheid was crumbling.

Despite Eskom’s attitude and its refusal to withdraw its threat of dismissing workers, the NUM sought at all times to uphold the integrity of the collective bargaining process.

Industrial action is the economic weapon available to the employees and trade unions in collective bargaining. Strikes grant workers a voice regarding what goes on in the workplace and the power to stop production to enable them to retain their dignity by showing the employer they are “not just cogs in a machine”. Luphert Chilwane Media officer at the National Union of Mineworkers

Industrial action the only weapon available to trade unions, workers