Xolani Koyana,
Jason Felix and Sapa
PORT and rail workers could soon go on a secondary strike in support of the striking truck drivers to break a negotiations deadlock.
However, National Ports Authority spokesman Coen Birkenstock said the authority was not aware of this. “Should the strike happen, it should have [only a] small effect on the ports,” he said.
Birkenstock said the authority would ensure that ports were not disrupted.
The SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) yesterday said it had applied with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration for permission to expand the strike.
Satawu spokesman Vincent Masoga said the application, filed on Saturday, had a seven-day notice to have ports and railways workers join the strike after unions and the Road Freight Employers Association failed to reach an agreement by Friday.
Masoga said the move followed the association’s unwillingness to table a revised offer.
Their next meeting was scheduled for tomorrow, but relations and trust with the employer were worsening.
“We are losing confidence,” Masoga said.
Satawu has been asking for a 12 percent wage increase, but was prepared to negotiate a compromise if the employers were also willing to compromise.
“We’re prepared to even take 10 percent, but the guys are not budging at all,” Masoga said.
The truck strike, in its third week, has worried supermarkets and fuel retailers because trucks have not been able to deliver goods.
Cape Chamber of Commerce president Michael Bagraim said if the strike continued supermarkets and petrol stations “will start experiencing serious problems”.
“We have been lucky in Cape Town, because the big food chains have stocked up well before the strike started and [truck] companies have made use of relief labour.
“Our petrol stations are still full because most of the trucks delivering goods avoid the dangerous routes and deliver early in the morning and late at night. We have been lucky in the city, but as the strike intensifies and drags on we will have problems,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gert Stewart, a truck driver who was struck with a stone on the back of his head last week, is still fighting for his life in the Vincent Pallotti Hospital.
Stewart was attacked in one of two separate incidents on the N2 highway on Wednesday.
Hospital spokesperson Nazeema Ebraheem said Stewart was still in a critical condition and would be closely monitored.
“The knock to his head caused serious brain damage,” she said.
City fire and rescue spokesman Theo Layne said that since Monday 17 trucks had been set alight and stones had been thrown at many others.
No incidents were reported on the N2 yesterday as police patrolled the highway and areas next to it.