South Africa's into its strike season, as workers downed tools at state-owned Transnet, and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said it served Macsteel with a 48-hour notice to strike.
Numsa said, “Our members have been provoked into striking because management unilaterally withdrew certain benefits without consulting the union. Macsteel withdrew the benefits two years ago and Numsa has been engaging with management in an attempt to resolve the dispute, but they have stubbornly refused to listen. Macsteel has a workforce of 1700 and the majority of them are Numsa members.”
Numsa said its members would be on strike to demand the following be re-instated:
1. Macsteel used to subsidise employees medical aid by 50%, but for the past two years, Macsteel management unilaterally withdrew this benefit without consulting workers or the union. Numsa demands that Macsteel reinstate the medical aid within 48-hours.
2. Macsteel provided an accidental death benefit for employees who were affected by retrenchments and were successfully placed through the company’s placement process. Macsteel unilaterally withdrew the accidental death benefit from these employees. Numsa demands that this benefit must be reinstated within 48-hours.
Numsa said the 48-hour notice expires on Wednesday which means the strike will begin on that day.
Meanwhile, Transnet has urged striking workers unions to table their demands, in a bid to bring an end to the impasse after they rejected the employer’s revised offer of up to 5% wage increases.
Today, the troubled state-owned freight and rail logistics company will reconvene negotiations with its two recognised workers unions as the strike has been going on for a week.
The conciliation talks are being facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
The unions are demanding double-digits wage increases of between 12% and 13%, but have indicated that they would consider an offer above the inflation rate of 7.6%.
Transnet spokesperson Ayanda Shezi said the company was committed to finding a speedy resolution to end the strike that had crippled economic activity.
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