Statement of the SAMWU national press conference; national strike action to begin
SAMWU has decided to embark on industrial action to begin on the 15th of August 2011. Workers will down tools countrywide on the 15th and a series of strike activities will take place. The Unions memberships from around the country have indicated that they are ready and willing to embark on this rolling mass action.
A notice has been issued to the South African Local Government Bargaining Council on Wednesday this week, of our intention to commence with protected strike action, following the failure of conciliation to resolve the dispute this week. As per the Unions National Executive committee's resolution, the 15 August was cited as the commencement date of the strike.
As indicated in previous communications, we rejected the paltry offer of 6% made to workers by the employer body, SALGA. We are demanding 18% or R2000, whichever is greater.
Also in the water sector, the employer association, SAAWU, indicated that it is not in a position to improve its earlier offer of a meagre 4,6%. It further indicated that it was not in a position to respond to the union's demands on housing, overtime, tool allowance, 6 months maternity leave and the phasing out of a Total-Cost-to-Company remuneration structure in the industry.
The protest action will be ongoing, until SALGA and SAAWU revise their paltry offers. The strike action will affect all 262 Municipalities countrywide and municipal entities. All related services will be interrupted for the duration of the strike.
As a Union we did not take the decision to strike lightly, we discussed the decision at length and exhausted all avenues of bargaining available to us. We do feel that this dispute could have been resolved at the bargaining table, if the employer had only been more understanding of workers needs and difficulties, when it comes to day to day living.
The objective of this strike action is to force the employer to revise its offer and give the workers a decent annual wage increase. Should the employers come back to the negotiating table, with a revised offer the strike action will be called off.
In a country where half of households suffer from food poverty, workers deserve decent salaries. Contrary to what some analysts have being saying - we believe there is nothing wrong with demanding double digit increases. In fact with such grave poverty witnessed in our country, workers ought to demand nothing less than double digit increases.
The Naledi research report presented to the COSATU Central Committee held in June revealed that REAL monthly wages of workers declined by 23%, from R3558 to R2744 per month or 2.6% per annum between 1995 and 2005.
In the face of these glaring statistics employers must be forced to concede to workers' demands.
Statement issued by Tahir Sema, SAMWU National Media and Publicity Officer, August 5 2011
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
