Transnet strike: Unions must pay for any damage to infrastructure
10 October 2022
Please find attached a soundbite by Ghaleb Cachalia MP.
The SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) is threatening to paralyse Transnet when its 21 000 members down tools today over a wage dispute at the state-owned transport and logistics group.
In a move similar to one that threatened Eskom at a time when it was most vulnerable, this aristocracy of labour is holding the nation to ransom and the cumulative result will be disastrous. The question is: where is the urgency and intervention from cabinet and in particular from the minister Gordhan and his counterpart in the ministry of labour? Or are they simply willing prisoners of the labour unions in the government’s tripartite alliance?
Transnet has declared the strike illegal but the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) disputes this. While the Union’s secretary, Jack Mazibuko acknowledges the importance of Transnet to the country's economy, he continues to put the comfortably employed first while untold millions suffer without employment – any without any prospect of a job.