Transnet workers are not backing down on their demand for a double-digit wage increase

Unions are accusing Transnet of negotiating in bad faith and trying to undermine their right to strike.

Transnet is at loggerheads with workers over wage increases. Workers demand an above inflation increase of 12% and back pay while Transnet’s latest offer is a 4% increase.

Hundreds of workers downed tools and picketed outside the parastatal in Bluff, Durban, amid the negotiations deadlock.

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) and the United National Transport Union (Untu), who collectively represent more than 30,000 employees, said Transnet is “playing dirty”.

Thathu Kwadi, Satawu's provincial chairperson, told TimesLIVE the negotiations started late because they were supposed to be on a new salary scale from the beginning of the financial year — April 27.

This year’s negotiations started late because Transnet had “dragged its feet”.

Kwadi said they were also striking against privatisation of Transnet and had tried to avoid the strike, including seeking intervention from government.

“Satawu has declared today [Monday] as the day we start off our strike after being very lenient with the employer. On the 14th of last month our head office even went to the [National Treasury], the department of public enterprises and the president's office appealing to them for an intervention mainly on two things: the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the deadlocking of salary negotiations, but nothing came from that.

“So when the three offices, which are the authority on the republic, could not intervene we were left with only one option really which is to exercise the right to strike, unfortunately.”

Transnet was “playing unfair bargaining tactics” through the negotiations, including trying to prevent the strike by not agreeing on the picketing rules. That, he said, prompted an intervention by the CCMA on Monday.

“Unfortunately, today, for the first time in the history of Transnet, management has refused to engage with the union in good faith. Ideally, we were supposed to have agreed on the picketing rules but the employer has not. At this day and age you wouldn’t expect a parastatal of Transnet’s calibre to be playing such unfair bargaining tactics.

“As such, today [the] CCMA is intervening. [The] CCMA understands that because of the strategic position we have in the value chain of the republic, the moment our members withhold their power the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries will be affected, our garages will be dry.”

Transnet had initially said there would be no back pay, which Kwadi said was “illegal”, as the company should have budgeted for the increment from the start of the financial year.

“Now they are saying they will pay in instalments from next year so they are shifting the goalposts really.”

He said their demands were reasonable and he did not believe management were honest when they said they can’t afford the increases because the previous board had mismanaged the company’s financials. They had recently paid bonuses to top management.

“We all know that Transnet has been in [the] headlines, whatever we have manufactured here has been looted by other people and where were they [management] during that time? That is why we are not convinced that they cannot give what our members are demanding. If we can have all the books here you would find out what we’re demanding is just a drop in the ocean.

“They are using a lot of alibis, like the floods, but I’m saying they are changing goalposts from now and then. If you are approaching negotiations in good faith you put everything on the table and I can assure you we wouldn’t be here now,” he said.

Untu started their own strike on Thursday.

“We cannot suffer for the incompetence of Transnet,” said Dan Khumalo, Untu deputy general-secretary.

“They are crying about the previous board but they are still purporting the same misdemeanour. They are getting millions in bonuses while junior employees are getting nothing. How do you justify that when you’ve just said the company is not performing. So they are not honest and I believe they are negotiating in bad faith.

“The attempt by the employer is to undermine our members' right the strike. They might not say it out loud, but their actions basically portray that. We don’t have the picketing rules or the picketing sites. We have to condemn the tactics of the employ[er] of trying to deter members from participating in the strike. That is to undermine and weaken collective bargaining.”

He told TimesLIVE they only started negotiations in June, instead of December 2021, as is the norm, because Transnet had allegedly avoided going to the negotiating table.

“The management called an urgent meeting with us to avert the strike and they presented a new offer of 4% with an exchange to call off the strike. We rejected that and that's when they said our strike was illegal.”

They were told a 48-hour notice should be given to the employer before starting a strike and a seven-day notice if it’s the state. Transnet also told them their balloting was not in secret.

“For those reasons Transnet approached the Labour Court on an urgent basis, but the judge struck the matter off the roll on Friday,” he said.

The CCMA had agreed that the issue of picketing rules would be item one. Should they fail to reach consensus again, the commissioner would have to impose default picketing.

Kwadi said they understood the importance of Transnet, not just in South Africa but in the whole SADC region and the strike is a last resort. They would be ready to return to work as soon as they have an acceptable offer from Transnet.

“It was our hope that the strike would be averted as soon as possible because we know it has unpleasant consequences. Now we hope it will be minimised. When we arrived here they told us that if we do not work [then] children in Swaziland will not get what we are transporting.

“When we cough the republic and the entire SADC will cough and that is our responsibility. That is why our national office went to the three offices because we are responsible, we wanted to make sure the strike was averted. Even the SOE number one, Eskom, is our client. We are the ones who provide it with coal.”

On Thursday, the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) said past experience of a Transnet strike showed its impact could “kill the economy”.

“In 2010 the employees of Transnet went on strike; it was a 17-day strike. It cost the economy R7bn and created a backlog that took seven months to clear,” said Prasheen Maharaj, president of the DCCI.

“So when we heard, as business, that the strike is imminent after six or seven months of negotiation between Transnet and unions, we said given our past experience we need to avert the strike at all cost. So we did an estimate of the 2010 cost: it would be in excess of R12bn [in today's market] to the economy. The KZN economy in this port was affected by Covid, looting and rioting, the floods and the cyber attack, so there is no more [room for a strike]; it will kill us.

“Last week we engaged with Transnet as the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry to say what can we do? We even offered to pay a little bit more so they can resolve the increase in wages ... so Transnet wouldn't have to take out of their own pocket, the increase would come from the private sector,” Maharaj said. 

Attempts to obtain comment from Transnet were not immediately successful.

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