Hopes to end postal strike
The four month long postal strike has crippled the country’s mail services but Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) believes a settlement agreement is in sight.
Post is slowly trickling back into the mailboxes of Pretoria residents as the main Tshwane mail sorting centre is trying to get back to full capacity amid a strike by post office workers.
Tthe Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) this week said it hoped to reach an agreement with the South African Post Office (Sapo) by tomorrow (Wednesday).
The optimism of the union, whose protest action has crippled the country’s postal services for the last four months, followed the resignation of the entire Sapo board. The resignations were announced by Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele earlier this month.
Since casual workers went on strike in August, they demanded the permanent employment of all workers and a 15% increase in wages.
They have since dropped their demands to a 7% increase immediately with an additional 1% at a later stage, a demand CWU said was reasonable.
However, it is understood the cash-strapped, near-bankrupt post office was unable to meet this financial demand at this stage thereby bringing any settlement to a halt, a claim that the union refused to accept.
The CWU on Monday said it was ready to resume negotiations with Sapo. An attempt by the union to re-open talks with the postal giant last week was unsuccessful, the union said.
According to Eye Witness News, the union’s Clyde Mervin said leaders and members of the CWU were hoping for a speedy resolution.
“There is a settlement agreement in sight as far as we are concerned. We wanted to speed up the process so that, by Wednesday, we can allow workers to get back to work,” he was reported saying.
Rekord is awaiting a response from Sapo.
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