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EWN reports that the devastating Transnet strike is coming to an end after the United National Transport Union (Untu) agreed to a three-year wage deal on Monday.
Untu is the majority union, representing more than 50% of the Transnet workforce. On Tuesday, Transnet was still in discussion with the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu). According to Transnet Group CEO Portia Derby, 70% to 80% of workers were back on the job on Tuesday. She advised that the Bargaining Council had extended the wage agreement to all workers, so for those who had not yet returned it was still a case of no work, no pay. “What we've done is given all of our workers a reprieve to get back to work by Thursday, seeing as some of them might have travelled far as a result of the strike,” Derby said. She pointed out that, in essence, the Transnet strike had lasted just over a week considering it was staggered with Untu having kicked off its action before Satawu did. However, Derby acknowledged that the strike created significant backlogs both at ports and for rail. The backlog at ports should be cleared within the next 6-9 weeks, she advised. “At the ports is where the backlog becomes more difficult because you're moving containers, there are yards ... allocation of spots where containers are kept ... so in port terminals we have we have a lot of hard work to do over the next couple of weeks. In the case of Transnet Freight Rail they need about 24 to 48 hours for the backlog ... and another 3-7 days to catch up on the critical flows ... But the real problem is that time lost is time lost ... In the case of TFR in particular, we would not be able to make it up in this year,” Derby indicated.
- Read the original of the report in the above regard by Paula Luckhoff at EWN
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