Pretoria- Seventeen days of strike action by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) could come to an end today.
This as the union received a proposal for the settlement of the strike action from transport parastatal Transnet on Thursday following further mediation with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Union spokeswoman Jane Barrett said the proposal is an improvement on the agreement previously signed with the United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu).
"Satawu is currently seeking a mandate from its members to settle, based on the new offer. The mandating process will be completed by 2pm today," said Barrett.
Utatu ended their strike at the parastatal on Friday after agreeing to an 11 percent across the board increase.
Before the agreement was reached with Utatu, the unions were demanding a 15 percent wage increase.
Transnet spokesperson John Dludlu described yesterday as a breakthrough.
"The outcome was a once-off ex gratia payment to be paid out to all bargaining sector employees. This breakthrough, which aims to end the strike by some of Satawu's members, was agreed in principle with the unions which undertook to go through their approval processes with the view to signing it by noon," said Dludlu.
Satawu was just as optimistic that the new offer will be given the green light by its members.
"If the members approve the offer, it is likely that agreement will be signed and workers will return to work on Friday," said Barrett
