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Message-ID: <01bf0f35$fa00c120$559d22c4@anna>
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 14:31:49 +0100
Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <LABOR-L@YorkU.CA>
Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <LABOR-L@YorkU.CA>
From: Anna Weekes <samwu@WN.APC.ORG>
Subject: SAMWU Press Statement: Union declares deadlock with Johannesburg
Council over Igoli 2002!
Comments: To: Undisclosed.Recipients@wn.apc.org
To: LABOR-L@YorkU.CA
Union declares deadlock with Johannesburg Council over Igoli 2002!
SAMWU Press Statement 5 October 1999
The South African Municipal Workers' Union was forced to declare a dispute
with the Greater Johannesburg Council this morning after months of
negotiations around the Igoli 2002 restructuring plan failed.
The dispute, which was lodged in the Greater Johannesburg division of the
South African Local Government Bargaining Council, means that unions and
council management will now have to enter into a conciliation process to see
if the deadlock can be broken. Failing resolution of the dispute, the
union's 25 thousand Johannesburg members will either embark on industrial
action or the union will take the matter up in arbitration.
The Framework Agreement for the Restructuring of Municipal Services signed
between COSATU and the S.A. Local Government Association last December was
ratified in the Central Chamber of the Bargaining Council earlier this
month. This means that all municipalities without exception must abide by
the Framework Agreement as a document that their employer representatives
have legally bound them to. The Igoli 2002 plan falls completely outside of
the Framework Agreement, which stipulates that before any service can enter
into a partnership with the private sector, all public alternatives must
have been exhausted. The Agreement also says that mass consultation with
unions and communities must take place and that cost-benefit analyses,
integrated development plans and principles for service delivery must be
agreed upon before restructuring can begin.
SAMWU has been angered that the employer has drawn the union into numerous
empty bargaining council meetings under the pretence of negotiations, whilst
their elite "Transformation Lekgotla" has secretly proceeded with
implementing Igoli 2002 at the very same time. The Lekgotla has ignored
every alternative proposal that the union has put forward. SAMWU demanded
this morning that parts of Igoli 2002 that are already being implemented be
immediately halted whilst real negotiations take place.
SAMWU's view that the Igoli 2002 plan is the work of a group of highly paid
consultants, the City Manager's office and an elite group of top councillors
who have usurped powers from elected leaders was vindicated in this
weekend's Sunday World newspaper by ANC Councillor Trevor Ngwane. Councillor
Ngwane wrote that councillors had not been consulted on the plan. The union
is urging all other councillors who have approached SAMWU in the past months
with the same complaint to break the culture of intimidation that they are
suffering from, and voice their opposition openly along with other
stakeholders.
Recent months have also seen wide opposition to the plan by the South
African Communist Party, the National Civics Organisation, and the recent
COSATU Central Executive Committee meeting which said that it could declare
a Section 77 notice in NEDLAC over Igoli 2002. Last week Braamfontein's
hawkers joined the opposition after the Igoli 2002 plan saw them being
unceremonially booted off the street amidst council accusations that they
were a major cause of tourists and citizens staying away from the city
centre.
/ends
For more information please contact the SAMWU President, Petrus Mashishi on
011 3331582 or 082 975 4470; or the Collective Bargaining Officer, Dale
Forbes on 083 651 2959.
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