Cape Town - The Western Cape estimates more than 270 000 jobs stand to be impacted in the province by the indefinite strike of workers affiliated to the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) and United National Transport Union (Untu), who have downed tools as part of a mass action campaign.
The province, industry, business and agricultural sectors have all warned the strike would have a huge impact on port operations.
The workers went on strike after demanding a wage increase of between 12% and 13%; port and rail company Transnet tabled a 3% wage increase.
Urging unions to take up the offer on the table, Transnet spokesperson Ayanda Shezi said salary costs made up 66% of operating costs, “which is not sustainable”.
Research commissioned by the Western Cape showed more than 127 000 people in the formal sector are employed directly in the province because of the goods produced or manufactured and exported through the Port of Cape Town.
A further 97 500 people are employed indirectly and 55000 jobs are created because of exports, through the port, originating outside the Western Cape.
South African Berry Producers Association (BerriesZA) chairperson Justin Mudge said the strike was threatening 30 000 jobs alone in the berry industry.
He said the open-ended strike had come during the peak of the berry export season, which meant even a single day of the ports not operating would have a significant knock-on effect on the entire berry value chain, putting livelihoods as well as millions of rand in export revenue at risk.
Mudge said BerriesZA had written to key ministers and Transnet’s executive to request their “urgent and forceful intervention in the strike action which has resulted in the ports authority declaring a force majeure across all South African ports”.
Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger said she shared the concerns of businesses in the Western Cape that a prolonged strike by Transnet workers would “severely hurt the economy, precisely at a time when it should be creating jobs”.
“Our citizens will suffer the consequences of a disruptive strike, especially the thousands of residents employed in our rural areas who work in the agriculture sector,” Wenger said.
Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) chief executive Busisiwe Mavuso said the decision to go on strike in the middle of negotiations at the CCMA was “a severe blow to the economy”.
“The strike is at the very least an act of bad faith given that negotiations were under way at the time and several court cases are testing its legality. It caught both Transnet and the government off guard,” she said.
Mavuso said the strike had forced Transnet to suspend all activity in its ports which had in turn snarled up imports and exports for the whole country.
She said miners and many other companies were losing billions while the strike continued and that early estimates had put the costs at R6 billion a day.
Mavuso said Transnet, like other state-owned enterprises, was in financial dire straits and that revenue for the 2022 financial year was still R6.5bn below the pre-Covid-19 levels. She challenged the unions to instead come up with ideas on how to improve productivity, performance and capacity.
Mayco member for economic growth, James Vos, said the City was in constant communication with the port management team to stay apprised of the situation and advise and support where its mandate as a local government allowed.
Meanwhile, even as unions representing thousands of striking workers met with CCMA commissioners yesterday regarding the wage dispute with Transnet, members in Cape Town, Saldanha Bay, Richards Bay and elsewhere held pickets outside Transnet premises.
The unions have said the strike is indefinite and 15000 workers would not be working, which in essence means that ports and freight rail cannot operate.
Transnet said last week that there were five vessels waiting outside Cape Town’s Container Terminals, with a further 10 vessels expected soon.
At the same time, the port management has said it is implementing a business continuity plan while the strike is ongoing to enable some activity to take place in the port.
Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Jacques Moolman said the enormous gap between the current wage offer and the wage demand did not augur well for a speedy settlement.
Moolman said that while Transnet insists its wage offer of between 3% and 4% is fair and reasonable in the face of severe financial constraints, it has proposed a weighted average tariff adjustment of 9.24% for the 2023/24 financial year.
“The Chamber believes now is an opportune time to point out that Transnet’s proposed tariff increase is neither fair nor reasonable given the economy’s current financial constraints.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za