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Municipal Workers Down Tools

| News by Staff Reporter

In the latest of a series of strikes in South Africa


South African municipal workers have from today (Monday 15 August) downed tools as Samwu seeks an 18% or R2,000 increase for its members.

The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said in its strike pamphlet that Salga (the SA Local Government Association) had done everything in its power to stop wage negotiations from proceeding this year.

“They [Salga] challenged our right to re-open negotiations in terms of the 2009 agreement, which states that any party can commence wage negotiations, if the average inflation drops below 5%. Inflation for the last year was 4,1%. We managed to win two arbitration awards that confirmed this understanding,” said Samwu.

“Our demand of an 18% increase across the board or R2,000, whichever is greater, is very necessary to meet the economic hardships that municipal workers suffer,” the union said.

Employers have offered a wage increase of 6,08%, saying the union’s demands are unreasonable. “If this demand is to be met, the impact thereof will have to be passed on to local communities,” said Salga.

Samwu claims the 18% increase it demands, which is nearly four times that of inflation, is to cover the rising costs of inflation over the past six months, including food inflation at 8%, soaring transport costs and an increase in the price of electricity of 30%.

This strike follows hot on the heels of strikes in the fuel and mining sectors and threatens to further damage our tentative economic recovery.

In addition to this Samwu said workers in the water boards were engaged in a dispute with its employers SAAWU (SA Association of Water Utilities) and may join the strike action if no agreement is met on the 29th of August when conciliation takes place.


Source: www.bizpremises.co.za

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