Five day strike at Telkom
Members of two trade unions are set to embark on a five-day strike following a wage dispute with Telkom, company management said on Thursday.
The strike action by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and the SA Communications Union (Sacu) would start at 7.30am on Friday until 6am on Tuesday, August 5, Telkom said.
The strike emanated from CWU and SACU’s non-acceptance of Telkom’s final offer of 10.5%.
The unions were demanding that Telkom increase salaries by 12.5% for the year end March 2009 and 8.7% for the previous year.
The unions also demand that Telkom increase other contributions such as medical aid.
Meanwhile, the Solidarity union had accepted the increment on behalf of their members on July 17, which was presented to all unions.
About 38% of Telkom’s bargaining unit staff (Solidarity members and non-unionised) would receive the 10.5% salary increment.
Meshack Dlamini, Telkom’s executive for employee relations, said: "Regrettably, our last meeting with CWU and SACU did not yield positive results."
He said Telkom was aware of the current economic climate. As a result the company had offered a 4.25% increase above the already implemented 6.25%.
Dlamini said: "For the period of the industrial action, Telkom will have extensive contingency measures in place to ensure that the impact on service delivery is kept to a minimum."
The Federation of Unions of South Africa earlier welcomed the strike actions by the two unions.
Fedusa spokesperson Karriem Abrahams said their members were suffering because of the increases in food prices, interest rates and transport costs.
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