Buffalo City Metro (BCM) faces a complete municipal service delivery shutdown after thousands of disgruntled workers down tools today pending a response to pay increase demands.
The strike action will mean ratepayers will face electricity interruptions, no refuse collection, littered streets, no maintenance work and revenue services will also be affected.
At a heated general meeting at the Orient Theatre yesterday morning thousands of BCM employees affiliated to the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said they would not work from today, and instead would march to the City Hall.
The angry workers are fighting for a R2000 salary increase across the board to align their salaries more closely with the city’s metro status, as this had not been done despite ward councillors hiking their salaries in 2011.
With municipal elections looming, these councillors may soon be replaced with new councillors who have no background to the workers’ fight. Workers are also calling for backpay to 2011 when BCM received its metro status.
A crowd estimated to be around 2000 workers, many in the overalls of street cleaners, refuse collectors and sanitation workers, packed the Orient Theatre calling for strike action – to which Samwu regional chairman Jackie Konzani said the leadership would do as the workers wished.
Echoing Konzani’s words Samwu’s regional secretary Zolani Ndlela told the crowd: “We have heard your message and we, as leadership, have to deal with that and see how we can make protected strike.
“You have given us a mandate and after this meeting we will sit at Samwu offices and discuss how we’ll conduct the tools-down demand that you want from tomorrow .
“Once we put tools down it will mean we are on strike and a strike needs to be protected and this includes applying for a certificate to strike. This will protect us from being easily fired. Regardless of whether the strike is protected, a no-work, no-pay principle will apply.”
Other crucial services expected to be affected include the finance department, community services, electricity and the supply chain department.
“I think what will also assist us is that since the date is the 15th, a date when many ratepayers pay at the finance department … go to pay rent, they must find no work being done there because the go-slow approach does not assist us,” said one worker.
Night shift workers were not expected to work last night.
Ndlela urged the workers to continue to be united. “We are saying this is simple, they must give us the R2000 and see if we will continue to fight with them.
“If we continue to be united like this there is no reason why this money would not be deposited in our accounts by Friday. We are working to make sure that by Friday we get the money,” he added.
The workers marched last month demanding that mayor Alfred Mtsi respond to their grievances which included the permanent employment of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers and a “sewer allowance” for all workers who work with raw sewage as well as protective clothing for those who need it. They gave Mtsi until March 4 to attend to their grievances.
On Friday they staged a sit-in at the City Hall where it was decided that another meeting would take place on Monday to resolve their grievances.
However, the meeting did not take place as leaders of the Independent Municipal and Allied Workers’ Union (Imatu) were not available this week.
Mtsi’s spokesman Sibusiso Cindi told the Daily Dispatch on Friday that the mayor did not know when the unprotected strike action would end, but he hoped workers would go back to work as the public was entitled to smooth service delivery.
Cindi told the Dispatch that municipal services were not affected yesterday as many of the workers returned to work after the meeting.
Although the metro bosses called for a meeting with union leaders on Friday, Samwu members demanded answers at the end of today. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
BCM faces shutdown over wages
The strike action will mean ratepayers will face electricity interruptions, no refuse collection, littered streets, no maintenance work and revenue services will also be affected.
At a heated general meeting at the Orient Theatre yesterday morning thousands of BCM employees affiliated to the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said they would not work from today, and instead would march to the City Hall.
The angry workers are fighting for a R2000 salary increase across the board to align their salaries more closely with the city’s metro status, as this had not been done despite ward councillors hiking their salaries in 2011.
With municipal elections looming, these councillors may soon be replaced with new councillors who have no background to the workers’ fight. Workers are also calling for backpay to 2011 when BCM received its metro status.
A crowd estimated to be around 2000 workers, many in the overalls of street cleaners, refuse collectors and sanitation workers, packed the Orient Theatre calling for strike action – to which Samwu regional chairman Jackie Konzani said the leadership would do as the workers wished.
Echoing Konzani’s words Samwu’s regional secretary Zolani Ndlela told the crowd: “We have heard your message and we, as leadership, have to deal with that and see how we can make protected strike.
“You have given us a mandate and after this meeting we will sit at Samwu offices and discuss how we’ll conduct the tools-down demand that you want from tomorrow .
“Once we put tools down it will mean we are on strike and a strike needs to be protected and this includes applying for a certificate to strike. This will protect us from being easily fired. Regardless of whether the strike is protected, a no-work, no-pay principle will apply.”
Other crucial services expected to be affected include the finance department, community services, electricity and the supply chain department.
“I think what will also assist us is that since the date is the 15th, a date when many ratepayers pay at the finance department … go to pay rent, they must find no work being done there because the go-slow approach does not assist us,” said one worker.
Night shift workers were not expected to work last night.
Ndlela urged the workers to continue to be united. “We are saying this is simple, they must give us the R2000 and see if we will continue to fight with them.
“If we continue to be united like this there is no reason why this money would not be deposited in our accounts by Friday. We are working to make sure that by Friday we get the money,” he added.
The workers marched last month demanding that mayor Alfred Mtsi respond to their grievances which included the permanent employment of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers and a “sewer allowance” for all workers who work with raw sewage as well as protective clothing for those who need it. They gave Mtsi until March 4 to attend to their grievances.
On Friday they staged a sit-in at the City Hall where it was decided that another meeting would take place on Monday to resolve their grievances.
However, the meeting did not take place as leaders of the Independent Municipal and Allied Workers’ Union (Imatu) were not available this week.
Mtsi’s spokesman Sibusiso Cindi told the Daily Dispatch on Friday that the mayor did not know when the unprotected strike action would end, but he hoped workers would go back to work as the public was entitled to smooth service delivery.
Cindi told the Dispatch that municipal services were not affected yesterday as many of the workers returned to work after the meeting.
Although the metro bosses called for a meeting with union leaders on Friday, Samwu members demanded answers at the end of today. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
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