SA in for serious trouble

[John Ashworth]

Metrorail offers some services for commuters

IOL May 25 2010 at 12:20AM

Metrorail will continue running a reduced service in Gauteng on Tuesday, a spokesperson said.

"The train service we ran today [Monday] was at approximately 32 percent, much lower than what we normally run," Nana Zenani said in a statement.

Trains would not be running fully due to a continued strike by members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union, who have rejected a 10-percent wage offer from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).

Satawu and the United Transport and Allied Trade Union embarked on the strike, which left thousands of commuters stranded last week. Utatu accepted Prasa's offer on Thursday and its members returned to work on Friday morning.

Satawu, representing 56 percent of Prasa employees, vowed to continue striking until its 13-percent wage increase demand was met.

Metrorail's technical operations manager Michael Nku said the company anticipated a slight improvement in Tuesday's train service as more employees were expected to return to work.

Zenani said "isolated" cases of intimidation against non-striking employees by strikers were "registered with concern".

She urged Metrorail customers to continue using alternative transportation until the full service capacity had been reached. - Sapa

Losses climb as strike enters third week

IOL May 24 2010 at 11:04PM
By Agnieszka Flak

Members of the biggest trade union at South African logistics group Transnet ended a strike on Monday, but the stoppage hitting ports and railways dragged on after a smaller union rejected a revised pay deal.

The strike, now in its third week, has held up exports of metals, cars, fruit and wine to Europe and Asia, as well as imports of vehicle parts and fuel supplies three weeks before the Fifa World Cup starts.

South Africa hosts the World Cup in June and July, and soccer's world governing body Fifa said imports of some equipment for the event had been affected.

Jobs in agriculture were under threat, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tina Joemat-Pettersson told reporters.

"We are estimating a loss of over one billion rand for the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector," she said.

So far, coal exports to power plants in Europe and Asia have continued thanks to stocks at the ports, and fuel supplies to petrol pumps are also as yet unaffected.

Strikers themselves are feeling the strain of lost wages.

"Our members have returned to work," said George Strauss, President of the United Transport and Allied Trade Union.

The smaller South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), said its members remained fully behind the action.

"The strike is still on, none of our workers are back to work," said Zenzo Mahlangu, General Secretary at Satawu, which represents 39 percent of the 54 000 workers at Transnet.

The union said it would not budge unless Transnet raises its pay rise offer above the 11 percent put on the table last week.

"Our members have indicated very clearly that they will not return to work until they see such a shift," it said.

The union said it had issued notices for sympathy strikes at other port related companies which could start as of June 1 should the dispute with Transnet not be resolved by then. - Reuters

Corporate SA counts high costs of Transnet strike action

May 25, 2010
Business Report
By Asha Speckman

The strike by Transnet workers who have yet to accept the parastatal's wage offer of 11 percent across the board has taken its toll on corporate South Africa and costs are mounting as it continues for a second week.

Members of the SA Trade and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) want 13 percent before returning to work.

Satawu said yesterday it had sought support from the International Transport Workers' Federation, as well as issued a sympathy strike notice due to take effect next Tuesday.

The strike at ports, rails and pipelines has had disastrous effects for local business.

The fruit industry has lost R1 billion due to freight backlogs, while BMW was forced to stop a shift yesterday because the vehicle maker lacked parts to continue production.

Riaan Kruger, the chief executive of the SA Liquor Brandowners Association, said the liquor sector had lost more than R300 million as 1 000 containers holding 9 million litres of wine destined for Europe were delayed.

"Europe is our largest export market, and we have not been able to supply them as a result of this delay," he said.

A further concern is that Transnet could be forced to hike its prices to recoup losses, resulting in a cascade effect on the economy and threatening the inflation outlook.

Labour specialist Andrew Levy said Transnet would experience direct costs with knock-on effects on all companies relying on the services of the transport parastatal.

"Both exporters and importers will have to bear the costs. This will also have immediate direct costs for the workers themselves," said Levy.

Economists.co.za director and economist Mike Schussler said: "There is no doubt in my mind some companies in other countries are very concerned about having South Africa as a trade partner."

David Wolpert, the chief executive of the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters, said he had been inundated with calls from overseas. "Some overseas companies are refusing to ship in staff until they know exactly what is happening," said Wolpert.

[Steve Appleton]

In today's Business Day at http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/C ... ?id=109814
The Agriculture Minister estimates agriculture industry losses at more than a billion rands and says European fruit contracts are in jeopardy.

Farm crisis looms as rail strike bites
WYNDHAM HARTLEY
Published: 2010/05/25 06:26:21 AM

The agriculture sector has already sustained losses of more than R1bn and further job losses are likely as a result of the Transnet strike.

The Department of Agriculture is investigating the possibility of having a disaster declared, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said yesterday.

While disasters are normally confined to droughts, floods, fires and the like, Joemat-Pettersson said she was investigating whether the huge monetary losses, the potential job losses and the possible loss of export contracts could fall under the disaster management definition of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

If so, it would allow the government to offer assistance to the agricultural producers hardest hit by the strike.

The minister said yesterday at a news conference the agricultural sector had shed 100000 jobs in the past year. About 30000 of these were “reclaimed” but “these jobs are now under threat as a result of production losses”.

“The estimated loss in the fruit industry alone is running into R1bn and can be felt in the potential drop in markets and jobs.

“The consolidation of the losses in the entire sector, including grain, livestock, fisheries, forestry and other related industries, remains to be calculated,” she said.

Part of the problem was that the tail-end of the pear and apple season could not be moved to market. This led to valuable storage space being denied to the first citrus and avocado pear harvests.

Joemat-Pettersson said farmers had tried to delay the ripening of fruit through limited watering but this could not continue any longer.

“While the loss of jobs remains our biggest concern, a further challenge is the potential compromise of customers and international markets.

“The industry is bound by contractual obligations such as freshness and prompt delivery. Failure to adhere to our contractual agreements has the potential of impacting negatively on our reputation as a competitive and efficient player on the global market,” Joemat- Pettersson said.

As a result of the poor economic situation in many European Union countries, many contractors might be looking for just such an excuse to withdraw from long-term contracts, she said.

Coming hard on the heels of the losses suffered by producers whose products could not be moved by air as a result of the grounding of flights due to volcanic ash, the strike was a further blow to the agricultural sector, the minister said.

In response to a question, she said a coordinated Cabinet response to the crisis was being developed and she was looking into what assistance the government could offer.

The WTO defines the ways in which governments can support the agricultural sector and one of these is through disaster management, hence the investigation of whether this crisis could fall within the definition.

Joemat-Pettersson said the situation would not automatically translate into cheaper fruit on the domestic market because there would be increases in production costs and lower returns on investment for producers.

The citrus industry was already expecting to lose about R650m as a result of the strike, plus a further R50m for extra storage costs, the minister said.

“Last week alone, a port congestion surcharge for over 70000 pallets was imposed on the citrus cargo awaiting loading. This penalty amounted to R80m.” With Sapa

hartleyw@bdfm.co.za

[John Ashworth]

See new post-strike thread here