Will SABC's contingency plan work?

2009-07-03 22:45

Johannesburg - Just over half of the SABC workforce are expected to go on strike on Monday, unions said.

The Media Workers Association of SA (Mwasa) secretary general Ernest Dlamini said the union expected all of its 600 members to embark on the strike.

Communication Workers' Union (CWU) general secretary Gallant Roberts said on Friday the union had 949 members and they were still working out how many would strike.

Roberts said the SABC apparently had just over 3 000 staff members.

Overtime ban

Forty-eight hours' notice of the intended strike action was handed to the SABC on Thursday.

"On Monday, members will picket in lunch hours," said Roberts.

"They will start go-slow and work to rule where they will only be doing their duties as per their job description."

An overtime ban would also be in place.

"On Friday, we intend to commence with marches to regional offices of the SABC including in Auckland Park," he said referring to the Johannesburg-based headquarters of the public broadcaster.

Roberts said the unions' national working committee would meet on Monday to organise an application for Friday's march.

"After that we will be embarking on a complete withdrawal of labour in the form of a stay-away from the 13th [of July] until management accedes to our demands."

Strike certificate reviewed

On Wednesday, the Johannesburg Labour Court dismissed a bid by the SABC to stop its workers from striking.

The court decision followed an application by the SABC to have the strike certificate, issued to the unions by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) two weeks ago, reviewed.

The application led to the unions abandoning the use of the CCMA certificate until the Labour Court had made a decision.

The unions went to the CCMA when the SABC revised a 12.2% multi-term pay offer it was supposed to have implemented in April, to 8.5%.

On Friday, SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago confirmed the public broadcaster had received the notice to strike from CWU and Mwasa.

"From our side, if the strike goes on we have a contingency plan."

Solidarity strikes

As to whether the SABC was confident the contingency plan would be effective, "the only proof is in the implementation", he said.

Roberts said the union would ask other members from the information communication technology sector to embark on solidarity strikes.

At Monday's national working committee meeting a mandate would be sought to give notice to strike to institutions where the union had a presence, such as at Telkom, the SA Post Office and the Independent Communications Authority of SA.

Commenting on reports that the union would be asking production houses to withhold delivering their programmes to the SABC in solidarity, he said: "We will be looking at organisations [like these]... to see if we can amass some support from them."

Roberts said the SABC's no work, no pay policy did not deter the workers from striking.

"It's a short-term effect. They are fighting for long-terms gains to improve their lives."

Union members 'eager to strike'

As to whether the strike could lead to a blackout: "I'm sure there will be a major impact on operations in SABC in total," he said.

The SABC's contingency plan would not minimise the impact of the strike, Roberts said.

"Employers normally take that approach undermining and underplaying the effect of protest by talking of a contingency plan."

He said as workers prepared to embark on industrial action, the mood was "high".

"The members are so eager."
 

- SAPA