Time for some union busting (column)

I think real reason is more along the lines of that the CWU honestly do not understand what LLU is or how it will benefit everybody in the long run which is understandable seeing as most of their members barely have a matric certificate to share amongst them.
 
As well as being on the master's leach, thinking back to vodacom's listing and how magically cosatu had a problem with it overnight...
 
Telkom are probably only fighting this to keep certain people happy. After LLU, when a cable is stolen, they dont need to worry about it or pay any more money to replace it. If it doesnt get fixed? Who cares?!
 
The first article ever to speak some sense. But what is true, is any company wanting access to the last mile copper will have to install access equipment at the end of that last mile. That means lots and lots of capital outlay and companies will cherry pick.
 
Asterix_T said:
The first article ever to speak some sense. But what is true, is any company wanting access to the last mile copper will have to install access equipment at the end of that last mile. That means lots and lots of capital outlay and companies will cherry pick.
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Yup. And the Telkom employee who fixed ADSL lines for the past 20 years will now be unemployed. The new ISP's will hire their buddy, and their buddies buddy. The poor ex-Telkom techie will be left in the cold because he is either white or too old to be hired again.
 
Asterix_T said:
The first article ever to speak some sense. But what is true, is any company wanting access to the last mile copper will have to install access equipment at the end of that last mile. That means lots and lots of capital outlay and companies will cherry pick.
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And i wonder who will pay for that equipment ??
The unions are just doing their job ( may be not very good but that is their job to look after their me
members interests )
 
That is probably true, but you have to remember that LLU is focussed on offering consumers choice, but only if there is an economic imperative for that to happen.
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I see LLU benefiting no-one, as all it will bring, is the consumer having a choice between Telkom and someone else. No price benefit, just choice.
 
so it will only benefit the rich white people? but there's more rich black people than there are rich white people. why won't the rich black benefit? is it due to some DNA thing? Oh wait...CWU is playing the race card cause they don't understand what LLU is.
 
inferno said:
Yup. And the Telkom employee who fixed ADSL lines for the past 20 years will now be unemployed. The new ISP's will hire their buddy, and their buddies buddy. The poor ex-Telkom techie will be left in the cold because he is either white or too old to be hired again.
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I would prefer someone who's been doing his job for the past 20 years to work on my line (no matter what colour he is) as he is probably not going to screw it up due to the amount of experience he has.

crackersa said:
so it will only benefit the rich white people? but there's more rich black people than there are rich white people. why won't the rich black benefit? is it due to some DNA thing? Oh wait...CWU is playing the race card cause they don't understand what LLU is.
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I think that's the only card they have (just like the ANC)

It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.
 
Sting said:
CWU showing their true colours again. Racists.
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I wish I could disagree, the CWU has repeatedly demonstrated that it is a union dominated by dumbasses and this "Vulture" that was dispatched to spout drivel into ICASA's ears, is no different.

If Malema gets booted out of the ANC, I would expect to hear that he is the new president of the CWU and has been supplied with a whole new deck of solid gold race cards.
 
The article is very good save for the fact that COSATU is not a trade union but a confederation of 21 affiliated unions; that's what makes them powerful, their influence spreading across so many sectors of the econonmy.
 
zamicro said:
No mention of Solidarity?
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I was also surprised that Ben didn't mention Solidarity, however Ben seems to have concentrated on the CWU's disingenuous opposition to LLU.

IMHO Solidarity did not appear to have an opinion of its own and instead based its entire standpoint on Telkom's anti-LLU propaganda without properly considering the LLU submissions of Telkom's competitors.

One can understand that Telkom employees are brainwashed but that does not mean one should lend significant weight to the opinions of brainwashed union members.

The CWU is even worse than Solidaity in that the CWU pulled the race card instead of taking the time to formulate an opinion (even if such opinion were based on Telkom's propaganda).
 
However, the CWU appears to be completely disingenuous about its reasons for opposing LLU. According to reports, the reason for the CWU opposing LLU is that it will benefit only rich whites and the poor people out in the sticks will get nothing from it.
That is probably true, but you have to remember that LLU is focussed on offering consumers choice, but only if there is an economic imperative for that to happen.
Out in the sticks there are firstly very few landlines anyway (most communications happen via cellphone) and even if the local loop is unbundled, those people with Telkom lines will still have Telkom lines, so nothing would change.
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First you say their reasoning is unsound and than agree with it. KKU will likely kill the expansion of ADSL in rural communities as the ISP will focus on the more lucrative urban DSL. Their reasoning is sound and just. their members will have jobs regardless what happens they are saying that they want them to have more work in the future... by ensuring that rural installations continue.

You have qouted no statistics stating that wireless is preferrred in rural areas. Shakaskraal a mere 40 KM's from Durban does not have WCDMA nor HSDPA and you argue that it is preferred? where as we have adsl thanks to Telkom...
 
MightyMuffinMan said:
First you say their reasoning is unsound and than agree with it. KKU will likely kill [highlight]the expansion of ADSL in rural communities as the ISP will focus on the more lucrative urban DSL. Their reasoning is sound and just.[/highlight] their members will have jobs regardless what happens they are saying that they want them to have more work in the future... by ensuring that rural installations continue.

You have qouted no statistics stating that wireless is preferrred in rural areas. Shakaskraal a mere 40 KM's from Durban does not have WCDMA nor HSDPA and you argue that it is preferred? where as we have adsl thanks to Telkom...
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Interesting comment you have there.

I must confess that I'm not familiar with the intricate details of the CWU's proposed replacement for LLU, which is a process dubbed Klu Klux Unbundling whereby ADSL is taken away from all urban areas (where some pointy-hatted white people happen to reside interspersed with the currently advantaged non-white people who also currently make use of ADSL in urban areas), such that this thing called ADSL is then given to only non-white people living in rural areas who mostly lack electricity, municipality supplied water, computers in every household, and many other things that people of varying shades of numerous colours enjoy in urban areas.

The point that Ben was making in the article, is that the CWU is a union that claims to represent its members - in this case allegedly a subset of Telkom employees that pay union membership fees to the CWU and who might be affected by LLU, the CWU is disingenuous in that the CWU decided instead to take it upon itself to represent all poor non-white people in rural areas who don't even work for Telkom.

Telkom has a de facto monopoly on fixed lines which means that there is no incentive for Telkom to roll out ADSL to rural areas, and it gets worse in that Telkom's recent strategy shows that Telkom would prefer to concentrate on gated communities for ADSL and fibre optic services rollouts, which leaves urban communities at Telkom's mercy.

LLU is primarily about introducing competition in a monopolistic enviroment, with comeptition many things previously considered impossible suddenly become possible, including increased broadband penetration to urban and rural areas - even if it sometimes means wireless rollouts to cover larger areas in a shorter timeframe.

Have you taken a moment to consider that Shakaskraal (and many areas like it) might first need some high capacity fixed line infrastructure to provide backhaul bandwidth before wireless services can be rolled out there and that Telkom sets the pace for not providing broadband services in such areas?
 
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the reason for the CWU opposing LLU is that it will benefit only rich whites and the poor people out in the sticks will get nothing from it.
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Why rich whites only? Did Verwoerd make the internet too hard for black people to understand too?
Just another case of pointing at white people while wallowing in the misery of their own doing.
It's like a handicap in golf. They can't compete, so they pull the race card.
 
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