Hope's up South Africa strike will end, but Safmarine doubtful

HOPES are high that South Africa's 12-day rail and port strike is coming to an end as union negotiators encourage the rank and file to take the 11 per cent cross-the-board wage increase they had previously rejected.

"It is unfortunate that we have not been able to increase the 11 per cent offered by management. We must understand that this is a settlement has been derived from fierce negotiations," said one union official, reported South Africa's Business Report.

"We are encouraging agreement," said South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWA) negotiator Jane Barrett ahead of the union membership ratification.

Transnet spokesman John Dludlu said he would not discuss the offer in public until the unions met management again.

But contingency plans of carriers, such as Maersk unit Safmarine, remain in place with the company still expecting the strike to last two weeks, reported London's Containerisation International.

State-run logistics giant Transnet has maintained senior teams at crucial command centres to ensure to deal with freight backlogs accumulated during the strike, but gave no indication of the size of these backlogs or the overall cost of the strike.

The South African rail strike at least on the passenger side, appeared to be ending as members of SATAWA positively considered the pay offer.

The strike had closed operations leaving Passenger Rail Agency of SA's (PRASA)'s two million commuters to seek other means of transport, reported South Africa's Business Day.

In a further sign of discontent among public sector workers, the South African National Defence Force Union (SANDU) complained yesterday that soldiers had still not received the five months' back pay as promised.

The new settlement appears to still be the 11 per cent increase unions earlier rejected, demanding 15 per cent instead, but at one point going down to 13 per cent, but back up to 15 when Transnet, which started off at eight per cent, would not budge from its last 11 per cent offer.

Interventions by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration failed as neither party would budge.

Bloomberg reported that fuel to neighbouring Botswana had been slashed as the country relied on South Africa for more than three-quarters of its fuel.

Source: www.schednet.com