BL Premium reports that the illegal and violent wage strike in Tshwane, which has been ongoing for more than a month and is affecting service delivery, is showing no sign of letting up.
The strike, which was declared illegal by the Labour Court, began on 26 July with the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) members demanding that the city should implement a 5.4% pay increase reached in the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) in 2021. The city responded by saying it did not have the R600m needed to implement the pay deal. It subsequently applied to SALGBC for an exemption from implementing it. The industrial action, which has seen nearly 100 city employees fired, has turned violent with at least one employee shot at and city infrastructure vandalised and set on fire. Proving an update on Wednesday, Mayor Cilliers Brink said that in the past 48 hours, “two waste removal trucks have been torched, and as expected this has affected service delivery negatively with some service providers withholding their services for safety reasons”. He added: “Samwu’s unprotected strike has turned into a criminal assault on the democratically elected government of the city and Tshwane residents. What started as a wage dispute has turned into a campaign of criminality.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page