Durban - Workers at the Dube Tradeport, a KwaZulu-Natal government public entity, are on a collision course with management over the recognition of trade union, National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu).
A notice for a strike has been issued by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to Nehawu, and unionised workers are set to down tools, starting on Thursday.
But, Dube Tradeport maintains the notice for the strike was “defective” and the industrial action would be “unprotected”.
Mduduzi Chiyi, Nehawu provincial deputy secretary, said their members had taken this stance because of the employer’s lack of recognition of the union.
“We have 105 members out of 187 employees. It means the majority of workers belong to our union,” Chiyi said.
He charged that the union had since the beginning of the year been engaged in negotiations for a recognition agreement, yet to be finalised.
“The employer continues to display an extraordinary arrogance towards the union. As a result of failure of negotiations and the arrogance displayed by the employer, the matter was then referred to the CCMA where a certificate to go on strike was issued.”
Chiyi also claimed that several attempts had been made to meet the management, which he said, was not prepared to engage with the union.
“This has left the union with no option but to go on strike and defend our collective bargaining rights.”
According to Chiyi, Nehawu has exceeded the minimum 30% threshold to obtain recognition rights at Dube Tradeport.
"We are open to discussion as we don’t want to go on strike on the issue of recognition.”
But, Dube Tradeport acting chief executive officer, Hamish Erskine, confirmed negotiations were under way with Nehawu to finalise a recognition agreement and the final outstanding matter was referred to the CCMA for conciliation.
Erskine also said they had informed the union that their strike notice was “defective”.
“Should the strike proceed, it will be unprotected,” Erskine said.
Chiyi dismissed the claim that their strike notice was “defective”. “They are confused. They say we are supposed to serve them with a seven-day notice whereas a 48-hour is needed for a strike,” he said.
“We told them the (7-day notice) is not working. They were unable to tell us which policy or law they got it from, but we are going ahead with the strike in terms of law,” Chiyi said, insisting they had followed all procedures for the strike.
Erskine said, should the strike go ahead, the Dube Tradeport’s alien clearing and land rehabilitation teams, cargo terminal operations and a minimal administrative staff would be affected.
He said an industrial action management plan “has been activated to deal decisively with any eventuality, from assuring security within the precinct and ensuring uninterrupted operations, for both ourselves, clients, tenants and investors”.