By Bonile Ngqiyaza
Telkom has dismissed fears that the two-day strike by some of its employees may disrupt telephone services.
The majority of the estimated 5 000 Telkom employees who went on strike on Monday are from the division that installs phones and is responsible for their maintenance. According to Telkom spokesperson Charlotte Mokoena, contingency plans have been put in place to ensure there are no disruptions in their services.
Telkom had deployed contractors, temporary workers and management teams in place of the striking workers, Mokoena said, adding that only one percent of workers from procurement services and 1,4 percent of network planners had joined the industrial action.
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On Monday, members of the Communications Workers' Union (CWU) and Solidarity staged a protest march from the Union Buildings to Telkom's Pretoria head office, where they handed in a memorandum to management. The unions are protesting against the unequal division of profits between management and workers.
The strike enters its second day today, but no protest marches are planned for Johannesburg. The CWU and Solidarity claim jointly to command more than 50 percent support in the telecoms company.
Meanwhile, as the security industry strike moved into its second phase on Monday, a split has emerged among participating unions.
An area of contention has been the fight over the leadership of the strike, a split that employer associations have blamed on the media.
National Security and Unqualified Workers' Union (Nasawu) and the Professional Transport Workers' Union (PTWU) - two of the 12 unions involved - have announced that the South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union was no longer co-ordinating the strike.
Nasawu and PTWU representatives Moses Memela and Reckson Baloyi said unions had agreed to be led by Nasawu in talks with the employers.
However, Satawu shot this down on Monday. Satawu national labour co-ordinator Jackson Simon said: "That is a lie. We never had any such discussions."
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This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on March 28, 2006
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