Postal workers issue final demand
The three-month strike by casual post office workers continues unabated as the union embarked on a march to the Union Buildings today.
As striking post office workers marched to the Union Buildings on Thursday as part of their three-month protest action, 167 cases of strike violence involving the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) had been reported to date.
Expressing worry about the violence associated with the South African Post Office (Sapo) strike, telecommunications minister Siyabonga Cwele said by Wednesday morning that more than 160 cases had been reported to the police.
“These cases include instances of malicious damage to property, intimidation and assault,” Cwele told the National Assembly, Sapa reported.
The CWU on Wednesday also tabled a “final revised” wage demand to Sapo, that saw the union lowering its demand from 15% to 8% and also the conversion of casual workers into permanent employees over a 16 month period.
“We have tabled what we view as our final counter-proposal and call on Sapo management to respond positively and speedily if indeed they are serious about resolving the current labour unrest,” CWU general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said.
If their latest proposal was accepted, he said, the strike could be over by Monday.
Tshabalala expressed concern that the turmoil at the post offices had continued for longer than anticipated.
“Critical mail has not been delivered, students have not received their study material, small businesses who used the post office have suffered and patients have not received life-saving chronic medication,” he said.
Sapo yesterday said that at the Tshwane mail sorting centre, some 80% workers were back at work although the service was not yet functioning at optimal capacity.
It was earlier reported that some parcels and mail at the centre had been destroyed by striking casual workers as part of their protest. However, to date Sapo has given no indication as to how they plan to catch up with the massive backlog in mail that had built up at their sorting centres.
It was widely reported earlier that Sapo was on the brink of financial collapse but Cwele on Wednesday said that a turnaround strategy would be implemented. The minister also said that a leadership problem at Sapo was being probed.
In addition to marching to the Union Buildings today (Thursday), the CWU plans to march to Parliament in Cape Town on Friday.
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