BusinessLive reports that the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has lashed out at the ANC, characterising the governing party as a “pig that eats its own children”, for its silence over Telkom’s job cut plans.
CWU general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said they wrote to ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule about a week ago asking for an audience with him after the fixed-line operator told unions that about 3,000 jobs were on the line. In a media briefing on Wednesday, following a meeting with the employer, Tshabalala disputed the figure, saying up to 6,000 jobs could be affected at the company’s subsidiaries, including Trudon, Startrack, Smollan, Perx and BCX. When the news about the retrenchments broke, Tshabalala said they wrote to communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams and Magashule for their intervention, but to no avail. The state, through the Public Investment Corporation, holds a 51% stake in Telkom. CWU president Clyde Mervin said they are going to call on their members countrywide to march to the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters in a bid to stop the planned job cuts. He also said they would talk to other unions representing Telkom workers, including the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Information Communication and Technology Union (ICTU). “We want to come up with a clear course of action. We will be making a call for [Telkom CEO Sipho] Maseko and his board to exit Telkom,” said Mervin. Ndabeni-Abrahams has noted the plans with concern. She scheduled an urgent meeting with Telkom’s senior executives last Friday, which her department said “went well”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive
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