DA calls for report on SAA union membership

021012 New SAA chairman Vuyisile Khona posing for a photo at SAA's offices in Kempton Park .photo by Simphiwe Mbokazi 453

021012 New SAA chairman Vuyisile Khona posing for a photo at SAA's offices in Kempton Park .photo by Simphiwe Mbokazi 453

Published Jan 14, 2013

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The DA would request a report on union membership within SAA, following the suspension of a strike over union recognition, the opposition party said yesterday.

“The report needs to detail the names of all recognised unions, numbers of members of all unions, names of any unions that have applied for recognition from the airline, and finally, names and qualifications of SAA board members tasked with negotiating with the unions,” DA MP Natasha Michael said.

She planned to submit her request to the chairman of Parliament’s portfolio committee on public enterprises, she said.

On Friday the Business Day Live website reported that a strike at SAA had been suspended after airline chief executive Vuyisile Kona reached an interim agreement with a new union, the National Transport Movement (NTM).

NTM deputy general secretary Liver Mngomezulu told the website it had been lobbying the carrier for basic recognition, including showing the deduction of union dues on pay slips, and a seat in the bargaining council.

SAA said that after a series of meetings in December with the NTM at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), the union had failed to gain recognition because it had too few members.

Mngomezulu said there was no reason why it should not be recognised. “We have more members than other unions that are recognised,” he said.

The SAA said on Friday a commissioner at the CCMA had confirmed in a report that the union needed to have 1 220 members at SAA. This would give it the required 30 percent of the 4 065 employees already part of the bargaining unit.

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