The Citizen reports that the ongoing national bus strike will soon evolve into mass action as meetings on wage increases with employer associations have again ended in deadlocked.
The five unions representing workers in the bus industry, including Satawu and Numsa, said a decision was made to embark on mass action and protests. Unions were enraged when the employer associations, the Commuter Bus Employers’ Organisation and the SA Bus Employers’ Association, reverted to a previous offer of an 8% salary increase for the first year and 8.5% in the second year of a two-year proposal (down from 9% for 11 months for the first year and 8% for the second year). “Employers have made good on their threat to revert back to the mediators’ proposal,” said Satawu’s Zanele Sabela. Numsa added: “Employers have declared war on commuters. They did not attend the mediation with the goal of resolving the strike. We moved several times during the negotiations to try and meet the bosses halfway. We made different proposals and offered compromises, but the employers refused to budge.”
- Read this report by Sanele Gumada in full at The Citizen
- Read the joint statement by the five unions at Polity
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page