Pretoria - Transnet has urged union leaders to ensure discipline among striking workers and refrain from engaging in acts of violence and intimidation against those colleagues who choose to work.
This comes as approximately 18 000 South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) members in rail and port were expected to down tools on Monday after unilaterally rejecting Transnet's new wage offer.
Metrorail said in a statement on Monday that apart from communicating directly with unions about the agreed strike and picketing rules, the company has also put police on high alert and communicated their concerns about any possible acts of violence arising from the strike.
Workers are divided on the mass action as United Transport and Allied Trade Unions (Utatu) has decided against the strike until it has consulted with its members on the Transnet offer.
Transnet which initially offered an 8 percent wage increase across the board on Friday changed the offer to 11 percent. The Satawu is demanding a 15 percent wage increase.
"We are concerned about the impact of a divided workforce, especially regarding violence and intimidation," Transnet Spokesperson John Dludlu said.
Jane Barrett spokesperson for Satawu confirmed that the mass action was going ahead as planned ant that they were expecting a big turnout. She said while the strike was indefinite, the union is working toward a swift resolution to the wage dispute. "We would obviously want negotiations to resume sooner rather than later," said Barrett, adding that there had been no cases of intimidation reported so far.
Dludlu said according to an agreement reached between the parties, the unions are responsible for discipline and order during a strike. Picketing rules have been agreed between Transnet management and Satawu in all regions.
"We have tabled a fair wage increase offer. Still, we accept that in a progressive economy like ours every worker has a right to strike. This is a protected strike which means that whilst workers will not lose their jobs for going on strike, Transnet, as the employer, also has a right to apply the rule of no work, no pay.
"We appeal to those of our colleagues who choose to strike today to respect the rights of those colleagues who choose to come to work," said Dludlu.
He said in addition to increasing vigilance and capacity to detect any acts of violence and intimidation, Transnet's legal team is ready to ensure that any acts of violence, vandalism and/or intimidation are severely and immediately dealt with. The company intends instituting both criminal and disciplinary charges against those found to have broken the law and the agreed picketing rules.
Dludlu further said ahead of today's strike action, Transnet's seven Command Centres went live to ensure the movement of key commodities as well as the safety and security of Transnet's employees and assets.
"Our contingency plans are already yielding the desired results: we have sufficient stock piles and, yesterday, we ran extra trains to transport key commodities. We have redeployed resources to critical areas of the business".
Meanwhile, Metrorail said its operations were not affected by the strike and that all trains were operating as normal at all stations. Metrorail transports more than 2 million passengers in three of the major provinces across the country daily. Any strike action by the passenger rail could cripple the economy. "We would like to assure our passengers that everything is operating as normally and need not to worry at this stage," said spokesperson Nana Zenani.
