Sandiso Phaliso
CITY workers picketed outside council offices and depots yesterday at the start of a legal three-day strike called by the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu).
Workers who refused to join the picket line were intimidated and threatened by their striking colleagues.
According to Samwu regional chairperson Lenox Bonile, some of the grievances are: line managers are not being held to account when they breach city policies; the shift system changes with no consultation; workers are being dismissed when they raise issues; there is no transformation; employment equity is not happening in many departments; and Samwu members are being racially victimised.
Yesterday, city spokeswoman Priya Reddy said a number of companies contracted by the city had reported that their staff had been intimidated in Dunoon, Joe Slovo, Khayelitsha, Kosovo, Philippi and Nyanga.
However, Reddy said there had not been a significant disruption to municipal services.
“The city’s contingency measures worked well and refuse collection has not been affected at this stage.
“Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) janitors are striking in Khayelitsha and the area is volatile, but no major incidents have been reported,” said Reddy.
At the city’s depot in Delft, striking workers threatened to assault workers who refused to join them. Contract workers cleaning the Delft taxi rank and those collecting rubbish were told by striking workers to down tools, council vehicles were also prevented from entering the city’s Delft depot.
Samwu member Mzwandile Ndabeni said if workers did not join the strike, they would be taught a lesson.
“We will assault them. Today was about warning the rats (non-striking workers) we will not be working until the city meets our demands.”
Ndabeni said for the strike to intensify and the other workers to see its seriousness, “we have to take action against non-striking workers”.
Contract worker Patience Mqaqa, 37, said she had no choice but to join the strike to avoid being assaulted or intimidated.
“To us, participating in the strike means no work, no pay. I will rather stay at home than fight for what would not benefit me. It is ridiculous that we are threatened like this, but what can we do nothing,” said Mqaqa.
Samwu regional secretary Mikel Khumalo said the pickets were also held in Khayelitsha, Ottery, Bellville, Athlone, Parow, Atlantis and at the Civic Centre.
He said tomorrow the striking workers would march to the Civic Centre to hand over a memorandum of grievances.
“We have told the council workers who are doing essential services to also down their tools because we don’t want a situation where they would be assaulted and their lives put at risk. Even though Samwu has the right to strike for three days, they say they will strike indefinitely if their demands are not met.
“Workers have run out of patience waiting, thus the strike action. This is an indefinite strike until the city meets our demands,” said Khumalo.
He said part of the demands that the city must address are that thousands of vacant jobs are left open and the money be redirected to the EPWP, where the unemployed are getting exploited, said Khumalo.
He added that the EPWP was about cheap labour, poor working conditions, no protective clothing and no prospects of getting permanent jobs.