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Municipal Strike Flops
| News by Staff ReporterOver 85% of the Samwu members chose to boycott the strike on Monday in Gauteng
More than 145,000 municipal workers were expected to begin their strike action on Monday, but according to the SABC the majority of Samwu members chose not to participate.Members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) began their strike on Monday for an 18% or R2,000 wage increase (whichever proves greater), but according to the SABC over 85% of the union’s members chose to boycott the strike.
The reason cited by workers who boycotted the strike was mainly corruption within the ‘dysfunctional’ provincial leadership.
The SABC reported that the SA Local Government Association (Salga), employers to municipal workers, said it was pleased with the number of workers that had arrived for work on Monday.
Salga Chief of Operations Lance Joel said the turnout had been somewhat expected.
“We had put contingencies in place if the eventuality arose where we were overwhelmed ... but there was not too much buy-in in Gauteng at least,” he said.
If the strike action was so weak in Gauteng, he added, it would be difficult to attract strikers in the rest of the provinces.
Mthandeki Nhlapo, General Secretary of Samwu, said he could not pass comment on participation until he had received feedback from all the provinces.
While Samwu demands an 18% wage increase across the board (or R2,000) Salga has made an offer of 6,08%. This offer was summarily rejected by the union’s members.
Salga said it remained open to negotiations, but added that 18% was simply not an option. “Our municipalities will be unable to carry that,” it said.
Source: www.bizpremises.co.za
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