Skeleton petrol staff assist public
The need to feed their families motivated petrol attendants to report for duty despite intimidation by unions to strike.
An announcement by the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) stating that petrol attendants would go on strike from Monday 9 September left Krugersdorp motorists in fear of another petrol shortage.
However, when visiting a number of petrol stations in the area the NEWS found that most motorists had no trouble filling their tanks after a large number of union and non-union members had reported for duty.
Fearing intimidation attendants went to work in casual wear, and skeleton staff were difficult to distinguish from the average person on the street.
“We do this in fear of the union (Numsa). If we don’t wear our uniforms they won’t be able to identify us; we fear that they might threaten us with violence as violent outbreaks have already hit other petrol stations in areas such as Roodepoort,” a petrol attendant told the NEWS.
“People were hit with knobkerries and locked inside service station shops,” he added.
Despite the daunting possibility that violent union members might target their workplace next, the average attendant said that the no-work-no-pay agreement motivated them to go to work as they have families to feed.
In a press statement by Numsa the union mentions that employers in the fuel retailers industry were given 48 hours’ notice that the strike would take place.
Numsa demanded a R30-an-hour pay increase across the board in all sectors of the motor industry by 2016 for workers earning more than R6 000, a night shift allowance of 20 per cent of the normal rate of pay, and an afternoon shift allowance of 15 per cent.
