Freight rail and port operations returning to normal service: Transnet

Transnet says its freight rail and port operations are returning to normal service after a 12-day strike that throttled commodities exports and impacted the economy.

The rail company and the United National Transport Union (Untu) agreed on a three-year wage deal on Monday.

The deal paved the way for most of Transnet employees to return to work.

Transnet says it has started to implement recovery plans across its freight rail and port operations.

Earlier, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said it would communicate to the media on Wednesday its position on its Transnet members.

This comes after Transnet agreed to the union’s request for an extension to respond to the latest developments regarding the wage dispute.

Untu says signing the latest wage agreement with Transnet was in the best interest of its members and the economy.

Union President Steven Leshabana says he is pleased that the union also managed to negotiate a 5% increase to the housing allowance over the next three years.

“It’s less than what we were demanding but it’s more than what the company was offering because we were demanding something around inflation or above inflation, however, we are satisfied in that we couldn’t fight anymore. Sometimes you have to stop fighting because everyone is losing in the process so we cannot use our egos and continue fighting whereas the employees are going to suffer the most. So, we did this in the best interest of the employees and also in the best interest of the company and the economy at large.”

Untu’s Cobus van Vuuren weighs in on Transnet’s three-year wage deal:

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