No resolution in sight as strike damage escalates

TENBOSCH – It’s been three months since about 10 per cent of Umbhaba Estate employees have downed tools, and the damage has been immense. However, the majority of labourers were intimidated and threatened with their lives and were thus not able or permitted to go to work. This is according to the managing director and CEO of the company, Mr Roy Plath. The police have arrested only a few employees for public violence, and no outcome has been reached yet.

Corridor Gazette paid a visit to Umbhaba on Tuesday where a large group of people was being addressed by the South African Social Security Agency which was handing out food parcels to those who qualified for it.

This is a result of them not having received any salary due to being absent from work, among other violations.

According to the strike leader Mr Dumisani Madonsela, workers have been demanding permission to be affiliated with a trade union of their own choice, and for the farm’s management to allow this, but to no avail.

He spoke to the media and said they had now called upon the premier, Mr David Mabuza to intervene.

Plath said, “We have insisted to work in accordance with the Labour Relation Act and in terms of Section 21 to undertake a proper verification per workplace. The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), however, wanted to force all our staff to join and not to permit to undertake proper verification. I am a man of integrity, and I cannot accept this criminality. Since the first day of the strike on the November 4, 2015, violence and crime of a very serious nature have taken place. I am not against workers belonging to a union, but I am against them breaking the law.”

He added that this had devastated the company. “I will not compromise the business by not doing the right thing. A lot of damage could have been prevented here if the union and the SAPS had complied with the law. The police should have immediately undertaken their mandate,” Plath stated.

“The business is now in the process of rebuilding and attempting to stand up again. This includes the employment of new workers, after 250 people were dismissed for gross misconduct. Many others who had been intimidated are only now slowly starting to return. Remember the vast majority of our employees were not permitted to return to work for over two and a half months.

“We are known across South Africa to be a company which far exceeds the minimum standards as laid down, in the way we treat our workers, and we have given thousands of people employment, but now this is going to have to take its course.”

He added that unions must also adhere to the law in SA, which could have prevented all of the damage. Damage included intimidation and violence against innocent employees and the company. Many workers had also been forced against their will to take part in the protest.

“They have also been intimidated at home and threatened with their lives. Some have been abducted and seriously beaten up on their way to work.

“They had to find various means to get to work, even if it meant going to work at 03:00, but still many of those on Buscor buses were forced off the bus and beaten up and employees were taken to the picketing area,” he said.

All of this is occurring in the peak growing season for bananas. A small percentage of workers have struggled to keep things afloat. This has had an influence on the packing of the fruit and immense financial implications. Banana plantations and housing have been burnt down and vehicles had been stoned. “For two months we were not permitted to use our main gate and had to use back roads as a result. Eventually the SAPS could not tolerate the crime and violence any longer and undertook to restore order.”

This protest has been receiving great support from the local ANC, Cosatu and Fawu. Fawu’s general secretary, Mr Katishi Masemola, has since called on a national boycott on the handling of Umbhaba Estate goods.

Madonsela added that wages were another bone of contention. “We worked 12 hours a day for 29 days a month.” He is a driver and earns R2 600, and said a huge chunk of this went towards transport. “Not so,” said Plath, “he is no less than deceitful.”

On January 14 the workers marched from the N4 to Umbhaba Estate’s main gate, where they handed over a memorandum to the company, stating their demands.

The strikers gave the company five working days to respond to their demands, during which they turned to protest action.

After the five days, the company stuck firmly to its decision regarding a trade union, and said employees should return to work.

This was with the exception of those employees who had already been dismissed, whose names were mentioned on the back of the response letter.

By the looks of things, the protesters do not have a plan for a way forward at this stage.

“We are now pushing that Cosatu and Fawu take the matter back to court. There is no way forward and people are now starving,” Madonsela said. He added that on February 8 they would approach the CCMA regarding the dismissal of the employees.

Plath told the newspaper that he had never heard such a continuous bunch of lies and hate speech as from all those who twisted and broke the law for their own ends. “In terms of South African law all strikes are to be conducted peacefully. This is not unionism, it is gross criminality killing jobs and our country.

“We can only hope that those in government will eventually wake up to the truth and stop this destruction under the banner of unionism,” he concluded.