|
Pretoria strike suspended
14/05/2008 19:21 - (SA)
Pretoria - The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) on Wednesday suspended its strike in Pretoria, it said.
"Following our rally this morning (Wednesday) we agreed to give negotiations a chance and resolved to suspend our strike. Workers will return to work on Monday," said spokesperson Zebulon Monkoe.
This follows the downing of tools by workers last Monday. They were demanding that the city halt its restructuring process, employ all its workers directly and stop investigations into outsourcing the bus service.
Services such as refuse collection and municipal bus transport have been severely disrupted.
Garbage has been piling up with residents being left to dispose of the refuse themselves.
At Wednesday's rally - near Belle Ombre - police kept watch on the area after union members overturned rubbish bins and strew garbage across the roads. Overturned rubbish bins Police spokesperson Captain Tessa Jansen said if members misbehaved, they would be arrested.
On the issue of union members overturning rubbish bins, Monkoe said the union's disciplinary committee would meet on Thursday.
"A disciplinary committee will meet tomorrow (Thursday) to discuss - among other things - whether there's a criminal element that may have hijacked our strike. It will also discuss issues around the picket conducted yesterday (Tuesday) during the Mandela event," he said.
A group of union members protested at Church Square and the City Hall on Tuesday during the bestowal of the freedom of the city award on former president Nelson Mandela.
Monkoe said the City of Tshwane had not yet been told about the suspension of the strike.
"We are still waiting for them".
The union said the suspension of the strike would not impact the work of a technical team that was appointed on Monday.
"The task team will continue their function until Friday," said Monkoe.
|
News
