Africa-Press – South-Africa. The biggest labour union at South Africa’s state-owned port and rail company are starting final talks with a third-party arbitrator to resolve a wage dispute and stave off a potential strike by thousands of workers.
Should the talks at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on Wednesday and Thursday fail, the United National Transport Union will move to strike.
In a statement, the UNTU, representing more than half of Transnet’s more than 46,000 employees, said it would issue a 48-hour strike notice if negotiations fall through.
UNTU said union members this week approved “taking to the streets” to demand that their wage demands be met.
UNTU rejected the company’s offer to increase pay by 6% over the next two years and 5.5% in the third year, instead demanding 10% in the first year alone.
The smaller South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union accepted the pay offer in March. The nation’s annual inflation slowed to 2.7% in March.
The wage dispute comes as Transnet works to recover from years of corruption and theft and deals with dilapidated equipment that has posed a key threat to the South African economy and its exports.
According to the Treasury, inefficient rail lines and ports have sent coal and iron ore exports to multi-decade lows and cost the nation more than R400 billion ($21.8 billion) in 2022.
A World Bank study ranks key ports run by Transnet, which has R138 billion in debt and is among the least efficient worldwide.
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