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Cosatu CEC gives its backing to Saccawu’s wage strike at Massmart

Details

cosatuBL Premium reports that Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali addressed journalists on Thursday after the labour federation’s central executive committee (CEC) meeting held from Monday to Wednesday.

The indefinite strike by the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) at struggling retail giant Massmart received the backing of Cosatu. Saccawu, which claims to have about 20,000 of Massmart’s 45,000-strong workforce, rejected management’s proposal of R320 and embarked on an indefinite strike from last Friday in support of its demand for a R500 increase across the board. The union, which has also called for a consumer boycott of the group’s 413 stores, is disputing alleged unilateral restructuring and changes to terms and conditions of employment affecting the group’s customer relation officers. Ntshalintshali said: “We don’t believe Massmart is broke. Massmart has never said they are broke. We think Massmart can afford the union’s demands.” He pointed out that the Massmart employees worked very hard during the hard coronavirus lockdown, even risking contracting the disease. According to Massmart, there has been low support for the strike among its workers. Massmart, owned by Walmart, has been struggling to shake off the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown restrictions that resulted in it losing billions due to government-imposed bans on alcohol sales. The July unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng brought more setbacks for the group — which is in the middle of a turnaround attempt to fix years of underperformance — when two of its warehouses were looted and one razed, with 43 stores damaged.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane by scrolling down at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)


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