Numsa port strike continues, houses repaired
As the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa- (Numsa-) led strike at Transnet’s Ngqura Container Terminal, outside Port Elizabeth, entered its eleventh day, Transnet committed to cover the costs of repairing the houses damaged in the protest.
The State-owned company reported the petrol bombing, stoning, vandalising and burning of houses and properties belonging to employees that decided not to partake in a strike besieged with “violence, thuggery and intimidation”.
A R100 000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators had been offered by Transnet and arrests were “imminent”.
“Transnet will take the necessary disciplinary measures against any employee implicated,” the company said in a statement released on Monday.
While Numsa Eastern Cape regional secretary Phumzile Nodongwe was not immediately available for updated comment, he previously told Engineering News Online that no reports of violent or intimidating behaviour from its members had emerged.
Transnet took a hardline stance last week when it instituted a lock-out against workers who had downed tools on April 25 in protest against the company’s approach to manning levels, transport subsidies and the use of labour brokers.
Transnet said the striking employees had also effectively forfeited wages for the period of the no-work no-pay strike, as well as their yearly incentive bonus and the container incentive bonus for the period they were away from work.
Numsa did not have sufficient members to qualify for organisational rights at Transnet, as it only represented 124 of the more than 500 workers at Ngqura, well below the 30% recognition required.
Members of dominant unions, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and Utatu Sarwhu, which currently represented about 80% of the workers in the bargaining unit, continued working.
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