Unions may lower sights as strikes dwindle
|Published
Striking municipal workers set fire to rubbish during a march for higher wages in Cape Town. Striking municipal workers set fire to rubbish during a march for higher wages in Cape Town.
Dwindling numbers of striking municipal workers may lead to unions accepting wage offers and ending a violent two-week national strike.
eThekwini municipality said on Friday most of its workforce had returned to work, with only 8.08 percent of staff absent without permission.
The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) said it had been forced to convene an urgent national executive committee meeting today to discuss the situation.
“There is no way we are going to accept the offer, the strike will still go on, but if we all go back to work we will have to accept the offer lying down,” said Samwu’s Jaycee Ncanana.
He said union meetings would continue.
On Thursday, 2 931 – or 12.6 percent – of workers failed to go to work in eThekwini.
The national strike has affected the collection of rubbish which has been lying uncollected in many streets, raising health concerns and areas have been left with no water and electricity, especially in outlying KZN areas such as Himeville and Underberg.
In Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday, Samwu member Musa Zungu was shot in the head outside his home, allegedly by a municipal security guard, and is reportedly in critical condition in hospital.
Samwu workers accused the municipality of ordering the guards to shoot to kill the striking members, while the municipality has denied this.
eThekwini Metro Police earlier this week receive threatening calls for participating in the clean-up of the city.
“We are accompanying the cleaners and some individuals received threats, but there have been no incidents,” said Metro Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Eugene Msomi. - The Independent on Saturday