News

SACCAWU Press Release:



For years SACCAWU has engaged national retail and wholesale companies for the establishment of a Centralised Bargaining Forum only to be met with arrogance and intransigence. As a result of this SACCAWU obtained a certificate to embark on protected strike action after failing to resolve the dispute at the CCMA.



We expect more than 80 000 workers to join this day-of-action. SACCAWU's call for a Centralised Bargaining Forum has been on the Union's agenda for years now and is more urgent today than ever before, especially in the light of globalisation and unilateral restructuring and workplace reorganisation, compounded with massive jobs losses and lack of coherent sect oral industrial trading polices, further exacerbated by some panic stricken reposition for fierce competition to be imposed by the ultimate entry of Walmart within; our shores and the continent.



Workers employed in the retail and wholesale sector are amongst the lowest earning workers in the economy, after domestic, farm and security workers. The sector is amongst those with the highest levels of atypical (casual, part-time, variable time employees, massive use labour broker supplied labour; etc) employment contracts. Workers in the sector have also experienced extended trading hours with little regard for the implications of this on the lives of workers and their social and family lives. In fact there is no due regard for supply of safe and reliable transport whilst most of the workers get caught in cross fire on various armed robberies and/or crimes easily unleashed due to permanent internal safe security, given highly outsourced related services.



Over and above this, the Union experiences a range of problems with companies, including issues of organisational rights, strikes and picketing rules especially in malls where it is now an open secret that the mall owners and managers subtly collude with these employers on the offensive against workers on the pretext of property rights; on which they excessively manipulate the yet to be transformed courts and police to carry out this dirty work further; by issuing the socalled urgent interdicts at times within an hour of notice to the union , with no due consideration of equality before the law as the bosses’ greed for profits always make them more equal before the law.



All this has increasingly become worse and untenable over the last few years as many companies hardened their attitudes towards the Union. Recently we saw many strikes, including the Woolworths, Massdiscounters, Makro and Dis-Chem strikes that could've been avoided. We witnessed the unilateral cancellation of agreements, unilateral and radical restructuring, re-positioning and re-engineering, threatening jobs security, decent work, workers benefits and many other issues. Many of these developments led to mass retrenchments and job losses in the course of these disputes.



Thus, where the sector for more than a decade saw the reversal of relatively healthy industrial relations and relations between the Union and employers into increasingly hostile and adversarial relations. This characterised and underpinned the wave of strikes, both national and local over the last three years.



These developments were hardly ever motivated by business considerations, but clearly driven by a desire to weaken the Union. Throughout the last few years SACCAWU warned of the Walmartisation of the sector. Walmartisation that is characterised by driving down wages, eroding workers benefits, reducing hours of work, extending trading hours, growth in various forms of part-time and casual employment contracts and many other developments. All this can only be realised through the weakening of the power, unity and levels of union organisation. And it is for this reason that we warned of the growing union-bashing that SACCAWU confronted.



For sometime now SACCAWU described this trend as the rise of Walmartisation of the sector in anticipation of the entry of Walmart into the South African and African market. Today with scurry by Walmart to takeover Massmart all this has become much clearer to many of our members and most of outsiders.



In the context of Walmart entering the South African market our campaign for Centralised Bargaining should be seen as part of our struggle against the Walmartisation of the sector and of Walmart imposing their business model on South Africa, with its far reaching implications for the economy well beyond Massmart or the wholesale and retail sector.



Through a Centralised Bargaining Forum we will be able to establish broad framework, understanding, commitments and minimum standards that will serve to protect and improve the position of workers in a growing hostile environment, where companies believe to compete with Walmart mean to act like Walmart. However, SACCAWU believes that the best response to the entry of Walmart into South Africa should be to establish minimum standards that Walmart can be held to, instead of attacking workers.



It is in this context that the SACCAWU's campaign for Centralised Bargaining should be seen as an integral part of our campaign against Walmartisation of the sector.



The action will take place throughout the country with protest marches and pickets targeting these companies to commit themselves to a Centralised Bargaining Forum.



The following companies will be affected by the strike action:

• Pick 'n Pay

• Pep Stores

• Makro

• Foschini

• I-Stores

• Dunns

• Metcash

• Boxer Stores

• Lewis Stores

• Saffer & Company

• New Clicks

• Truworths

• JD Group

• Shoprite Chekers

• Massdiscounters

• UPN

• Thumb Trading

• Edcon

• Ellerines

• John Craig

• Browns Weirs

• Ackerman

• Rhino Cash & Carry

• Builders Warehouse

• Jumbo Cash & Carry

• The Spar Group

• Melbro Wholesale

• Woolworths



Details of SACCAWU planned protest actions 26 November 2010







Region Town/City Target Companies Times For further details contact



Eastern Cape PE Pick 'n Pay and Shoprite/Chekers 13h00 Victor Poswa - 0823368184

Umtata Rhino Cash & Carry 13h00 Victor Poswa - 0823368184





Free State & Northern Cape Bloemfontein Shoprite/Checkers – Matiland 13h00 Jerry Mmoneri - 0823369298

Kimberley Pick 'n Pay North Cape Mall 13h00 Jerry Mmoneri - 0823369298



QwaQwa Shoprite Mandela Park 13h00 Jerry Mmoneri - 0823369298



KZN Durban Ellerines 11h30 Matthew Ndlovu - 0823369245 Woolworths 12h30

Massdicounters 13h00



Mpumalanga Nelspruit Woolworths 13h00 Patrick Skosana - 0823368173



North West Vaal Vereeening Edwin Makua - 0823368872 Mafikeng







Northern region Polokwane Joshua Doore 13h00 Cyril Dibakwane - 0823368382



Western Cape Cape Town Chamber of Commerce 13h00 Crosby Booi - 0823365731



Wits region Johannesburg Shoprite – Eloff Street 11h30 Steven Majova - 0823367118 Woolworths – Market Street 12h00

Game – Pritchard Street 13h00

Pick 'n Pay Carlton Centre 14h00







Contact

Mduddzi Mbongwe 0823365146

Bones Skulu 0823365015

Amos Mothapo 0823365240

Louisa Thipe 0823365247

Angie Phetlhe 0823365290

Thabo Mahlangu 0823365682







Mike Abrahams

media@saccawu.org.za