Unions have threatened to embark on a strike action at Transnet after management of the state-owned freight rail and logistics company offered no increase for the 2021/2022 financial year which led to the wage talks reaching a stalemate.
Steve Harris and Jack Mazibuko, general secretaries of the United National Transport Union (Untu), and the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) respectively, said in a joint statement the offer “is so bad that organised labour can’t even present it to their constituents to obtain a revised mandate”.
The leaders said the 0% offer was “rejected in totality” and emphasised that unions are prepared to “fight our battle in the streets, if we must”.
“The deadlock was reached after Transnet management proposed a 3% non-pensionable allowance on basic salary as a wage increase. Transnet refused to guarantee no retrenchments.”
If the parties fail to reach an agreement at the bargaining council after conciliation talks, “a certificate of non-resolution will be issued which will allow Transnet employees to embark on a protected strike”. Untu is the majority union at Transnet as it represents more than 30,000 workers. Satawu represents an estimated 16,000 employees.
Transnet is among a swath of state-owned enterprises that have been hollowed out by years of corruption and mismanagement. In the 2019/2020 financial year, its revenue rose by 1.3% to R75.1bn for the year, boosted by a 2.9% tariff increase, the company said in its annual report.
The rise was offset by a 1.3% drop in freight volumes to 212.4-million tonnes and a 2.4% decrease in container traffic through SA ports. The company incurred irregular expenditure of R9.965bn, while net profit decreased by 34.9% to R3.9bn.
Mazibuko told Business Day on Wednesday that during the first round of negotiations, unions demanded a one-year, 12.5% wage increase across the board, which is above the 3.2% inflation rate recorded in March and higher than the 4.3% average the Reserve Bank expects for 2021.
“The management offered 0% increase. During the second round of negotiations, we revised our wage demands and settled on 10%, but management still offered 0%,” said Mazibuko, emphasising that Transnet was a profit-driven company and that employees worked during the lockdown.
“Now that we have declared a dispute we will go through a conciliation process and if they [management] continue to negotiate in bad faith, that will leave us no choice but to take to the streets and embark on strike action.”
The union leaders said in the joint statement: “Transnet wants workers to bear the brunt of the decade of state capture and the years of irregular expenditure and mismanagement. Organised labour are prepared to fight our battle in the streets if we must.”
Transnet, however, said the “difficult economic climate and the resultant decline in the operational and financial performance of the company means Transnet is not in a position to accede to the demands made by the unions in the bargaining council”.
“In the current context, Transnet believes its offer is reasonable and realistic. It is important to note that for the nine months to December 2020, Transnet reported a decline in volumes transported, resulting in lower revenues — primarily as a result of the economic downturn,” said Transnet spokesperson Ayanda Shezi.
“The company’s priority focus is to ensure improvements in operational and financial performance, in order to get the company back on a positive growth path, and to sustain jobs.”
Transnet will continue to address “this matter in the best interests of the company, its shareholder, employees, customers and the economy”.
In February 2020, finance minister Tito Mboweni announced deep cuts to the public sector wage bill over the next three years, a decision the unions described at the time as a “declaration of war”.
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