Two unions at South Africa’s state-owned ports and
freight-rail company have threatened to begin a strike as soon as this week
after rejecting the latest wage offer from Transnet SOC Ltd,
The United National Transport Union served the employer with
a 48-hour notice that its members planned to stop work from October 6th. The
South African Transport and Allied Workers Union said separately that it planned
to begin a strike on October 10th.
Transnet’s rail and ports facilities are key to South
African exports of bulk commodities such as coal, iron ore, chrome and
manganese.
Transnet said its offer to labour unions of a 1.5% pay
increase and a one-off payment of ZAR10,000 ($563) was “reasonable”, adding
that any offer needed to take into account the company’s current “financial and
operational challenges.”
UNTU said that Transnet’s pay increase had to be aligned
with the rise in the cost of living and current inflation, currently 7.6%.
