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SACCAWU members employed at Pick 'n pay have been in dispute with the Company for almost seven months now. Workers had first submitted their demands to the company in December 2009, with the expectation that the process will be concluded in February and wage increases will be affected from the beginning of March 2010. However, the Company did not respond for four months and only reacted after the Union declared a dispute. After the collapse of conciliation the Union obtained a certificate to embark on legally protected strike action.



Workers embarked on a limited duration strike 24 -27 September but the Company still refused to shift its position. From October 29 workers decided to embark on a full blown strike. This was kicked-off with protest marches in ten different cities across the country that saw more than thirty thousand (30,000) striking workers and supporters march to various Pick 'n Pay stores to hand over a memorandum, outlining the workers demands. In response to the memorandum, the Company simply restated their position given at the time of the failed conciliation.

For SACCAWU this response is a clear indication that the Company is not serious about negotiating with SACCAWU to resolve the strike. Instead what workers have experienced since the beginning of the strike was abuse and provocation from store managers, mall managers, private security and the local SAPS. All these actions, including the shooting of striking workers in two instances and various instances of mass arrests of workers on the picket line seem to vindicate that there is clear collusion between Pick 'n Pay, mall owners and managers, SAPS and local store managers to provoke, frustrate and interfere with workers rights to strike and picket.



This hostility is no accident; in fact it is part of a trend observed in Pick 'n Pay and other retailers over the last few years: "Walmartisation of the sector".



Walmartisation, because of

• the growing hostility towards the Union;
• unilateral restructuring, re-engineering and repositioning;
• Pick 'n Pay like all Retail and Wholesalers in anticipation of Walmart entering the South African and African market, decided to attack workers and the Union as key strategy to improve their competitiveness.

The Union vowed that this will not work - workers will not accept to pay with jobs, low wages, little working hours and reduced benefits so that local retailers can maintain their profit margins in the face of Walmart competition.



Now in the second week of the strike, SACCAWU members at Pick 'n Pay are even more determined and more mobilised than during first few days of the strike. Therefore, as one of the outcomes of the anti-Walmart Coalition it was endorsed that the communities need to be mobilised for a total boycott of all Pick 'n Pay stores with immediate effect.



Workers demand:

• R550 per month increase or 12% whichever is greater

• A 10% Staff discount on basic food stuff.

• 120 hours per month guaranteed for Variable Time Employees

• A one year agreement wage agreement



SACCAWU further demand:

• End the use of labour brokers

• The establishment of a Centralised Bargaining Forum for the retail sector



Edited by: Keith Jacobs, Campaigns & Organising Director, UNI-Africa