Union+rates+Transnet+strike+a+success,+plus+2,+B+Report



=**Union rates Transnet strike a success**=


 * Business Report, Johannesburg, January 31, 2006**

Johannesburg - There could be no doubt about the success of a strike at Transnet, a union spokesman said on Tuesday.

"No matter which way you try and spin it, there's no doubt the strike has been effective," the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union's (Satawu) Randall Howard said.

Following the start of the strike Monday against the way restructuring at the parastatal was being handled, Howard said management was listening to them "with a slightly different ear".

"We're raising serious issues. They've got to make us feel that they are listening and responding."

Howard said unions were "certainly interested" in finding a solution, but management had to put aside its arrogant and heavy-handed approach.

He estimated that around 10 000 Transnet workers were striking in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. The strike is due to end on Wednesday with a march in Durban.

Transnet workers in other provinces were due to strike in February.

Work at the port of Richards Bay seemed to be largely unaffected by Transnet workers' three-day strike action, while the protest had a greater impact on Durban, an observer said on Tuesday.

"As far as I can understand, pretty normal operations are taking place," said Terry Hutson, editor of the Ports and Ships website.

The port's coal terminal was working normally as this was a private operation.

Transnet spokesman John Dludlu on Monday estimated that both ports were operating at 65 percent capacity.

"The focus and attention are all aimed at the Durban terminal. If you close that it will have a major effect on the economy.

"Johannesburg and Pretoria will be unable to get goods. That's the one they always target and it's effectively closed," Hutson said.

Durban handled between 3 000 and 4 000 containers daily. The cost of delaying a ship in the harbour was up to $25 000 (about R153 000) per day, he said.

Richards Bay handled 52 percent of the total cargo of the country's seven major sea ports, in 2002/3, according to Transnet's website. Richard Bays mainly handled bulk cargoes such as coal, wood chips, ferro-alloys, chrome ore and alumina.

Durban accounted for 24 percent of total cargo, mainly petroleum and general cargo.

The dispute with unions centred on the way Transnet wanted to privatise some businesses or parts of business units such as Freightdynamics, the Transnet Pension Fund Administration, Autopax and the Blue Train.

SAA, Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl would be moved out of Transnet, but would remain publicly owned, the unions said.

Collective bargaining rights, pension rights, and travel concessions were among the matters still to be finalised.

"Management has also been unwilling to enter into serious discussions around the proposed privatisations. These have been presented as management decisions not to be amended," the unions said in a joint statement.

Following a meeting with the four unions concerned on Monday afternoon, Howard said they were due to meet with Transnet again on Thursday.

Striking along with Satawu were the United Transport and Allied Trade Union, the SA Railways and Harbour Workers Union and the United Association of SA. – Sapa


 * From: http://busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=566&fArticleId=3090399**

=**Strike pinches port operations**=


 * Business Report, Johannesburg, January 31, 2006**


 * By Samantha Enslin**

Durban - The Durban container terminal, which handles two out of every three containers leaving and entering South Africa, was effectively closed yesterday as a strike across Transnet's business operations began.

John Dludlu, Transnet's general manager for communications, said yesterday that the Durban container terminal had a slow start and was operating "at less than optimal efficiency in the morning". He expected the container terminal to operate at 65 percent capacity the rest of the day.

However, shipping lines regarded the terminal as closed. Less than a third of the workforce was on duty and the gates were closed to trucks.

Dave Rennie, the chairman of the Container Liners Operators' Forum, said the terminal was operating with three gangs on the quayside yesterday morning and by the afternoon it had one gang working. During normal operations the terminal would operate with between 12 and 14 gangs, Rennie said.

But other Transnet operations did not fare as badly. The Durban car terminal was operating at 100 percent capacity and most of Transnet's other divisions were operating normally, Dludlu said.

The strike, which began yesterday, kicked off in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. In KwaZulu-Natal the strike will continue until tomorrow. Later this month workers at Transnet's operations in other parts of the country will also join the strike.

Four unions are participating in the strike. Randall Howard, the general secretary of the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union, said the unions and Transnet had met yesterday afternoon "to informally discuss" the issues.

"Labour presented in detail ... Transnet will come back to us by Thursday. That will determine whether there is a basis for a solution. It is too early to consider whether we will call off the strike," Howard said.

Steve Harris, the United Transport and Allied Trade Union's co-general secretary, said: "About 15 000 to 20 000 workers heeded our call to strike." Importers and exporters using the Durban container terminal are still assessing the impact on their business. But shipping lines are already counting the cost.

The cost of running a container vessel is between $28 000 (R172 000) and $35 000 a day, depending on the vessel's size.

"If a vessel is not being productive then you are losing money. The strike will have a massive cost to the economy and not just shipping lines," Rennie said.

Dallas Sutton, the traffic manager at the Mediterranean Shipping Company, which handles 38 percent of the containers moving through the Durban port, said: "Of course [the strike] has had an impact. But we can't divert vessels as we are a weekly service. So we are sitting out the strike."

The Richards Bay port was operating at 80 percent capacity, Dludlu said. The Richards Bay coal terminal, which is the world's second-largest coal terminal and is privately run, was operating at full capacity.

Terry Howard, the coal terminal's chief operating officer, said: "We have seen no effect of the strike at all. For ships arriving in the short term we have a 2.5 million ton stockpile of coal."

Exporters of perishable cargo out of Durban, specifically fruit, are unlikely to have been affected as the citrus fruit export season only kicks off next month with the export of lemons.

From: http://busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=552&fSetId=260&fArticleId=3089486

=**Trade unions demand future bargaining rights**=


 * Business Report, Johannesburg, January 31, 2006**


 * By Mzwandile Faniso**

Johannesburg - The four trade unions whose members went on strike at Transnet companies yesterday are demanding that the state-owned company guarantees their members collective bargaining rights after the restructuring of the company.

Transnet has identified a number of businesses that fall outside its core business of transporting goods. These non-core businesses will either be sold to private investors or, in the case of SAA and Metrorail, be moved out of Transnet but remain state owned.

The businesses employ about 30 000 workers, of whom about 20 000 work for SAA and Metrorail.

Jane Barrett, the policy research officer at the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu), said yesterday that the unions wanted Transnet to guarantee their members' collective bargaining rights after the businesses Transnet planned to sell were transferred to their new owners.

John Dludlu, Transnet's spokesperson, would only reiterate that the restructuring would not involve retrenchments or affect benefits.

Barrett said Transnet's response was not good enough. She said Transnet needed to put it in "a binding agreement" that workers would be able, through a collective bargaining forum, to protect their jobs after the non-core businesses had been taken over by new owners.

Transnet's response is in line with the statement issued by minster of public enterprises Alec Erwin at the weekend. Erwin did not give any guarantees that no jobs would be lost after the non-core businesses had been sold.

But he said: "I just want one thing to be very clear: there are not, I repeat not, thousands of jobs at stake. If the union leaders want to try and shape bargaining in the future by striking now, that is one matter. But no worker should go on strike thinking they are defending themselves against massive retrenchment as this would be wrong."

Yesterday was day one of the strike by four unions, which represent the majority of Transnet's 80 000 workers, with workers striking in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State.

Satawu, the United Transport and Allied Trade Union, the United Association of SA and the SA Railway and Harbour Workers' Union said on Friday that the strike would become national if there was no agreement by March 6.

Transnet workers in the Eastern Cape would go on strike on February 13, to be joined the following day by workers in the Western Cape and the Northern Cape. Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo would join the action on March 6, the unions said.


 * From: http://busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3089489**

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