Satawu calls Untu a sellout for signing three-year wage deal

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) has called out Transnet’s majority union the United National Transport Union (Untu) for signing a three-year wage agreement with the company on Monday.

Read: Untu signs three-year Transnet wage deal

Transnet noted that the deal, which offers a range of increases between 5.5% and 6%, covers all bargaining unit employees, including those who are not members of Untu.

In response, Satawu penned its dismay at the agreement saying: “The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union has learned with shock and utmost disappointment that the genuine class struggle waged by workers at Transnet was betrayed on 17 October 2022.”

“The United National Transport Union entered into a multi-year wage settlement agreement with the employer.”

Satawu says the decision disadvantages and undermines the interests of the working-class and low-earning employees and further demonstrates the division of the class.

Read all our Transnet coverage here.

It says that the agreement is centred on Transnet’s class interests, profit maximisation, exploitation, precarious work conditions and employee insecurities because:

• It does not include a no-retrenchment clause
• It excludes the deduction of lost wages in two instalments for workers o[taking part in] industrial action, implying that it will be based on the company’s discretion to ensure that employees meet their financial obligations owing to the “no work, no pay” principle
• The across the board (ATB) wage agreement is below the inflation rate.

“These conditions reveal that the working-class stratum is infiltrated by opportunists that will sell the state-owned enterprise (SOE) to the highest bidder if we are not vigilant, theoretically conscious and organisationally disciplined,” adds the union.

Listen: Satawu’s Anele Kiet says Untu has ‘insulted’ it by signing a 6% wage agreement with Transnet and it intends on intensifying the strike (or read the transcript here)

It says it will continue with its industrial action as planned, “regardless of the betrayal in question”.

“Since we cannot differentiate opportunists from the employer and employer from opportunists, the striking field workers, as opposed to the house workers, must intensify their struggle and mobilisation efforts to avert negative eventualities from confronting the rank and file.”

Nondumiso Lehutso is a Moneyweb intern.