Labour unrest in the South African Post Office
10 October 2014
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is surprised by the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services' call to CWU to suspend the strike that has been going on in the South African Post Office for almost two weeks because as CWU we have not called for any strike.
We were further taken aback by the initiative of the company and other groupings under the auspices of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services to call off the strike and agreed on the proposal made by the company without consultation with the workers. This approach has worsened or deepened the crisis in the company. Our view as CWU is that it is workers that must give us a mandate on whether the deal of conversion of workers to permanent in stages and salary increase is worth considering or not.
Four of our provinces have so far rejected the proposal of the company. We hope to receive the feedback from the remaining five provinces by close of business today.
We remain firm in our call for dissolution of the board and expulsion of the current executive management and further make a call to National Treasury to bail out the South African Post Office for the purpose of refurbishing infrastructure and creating of sustainable and decent employment.