Unionised labour at Transnet ports went on strike from midnight last night, with blueberry, stonefruit and avocado exporters looking for cold storage for their fruit as terminals are not accepting cargo.
The fruit industry, along with the dried cargo industry, have been meeting with Transnet as well as with labour but, sources in the shipping industry say, labour seems to have dug in their heels.
Pres Cyril Ramaphosa with Transnet CEO Portia Derby during a visit in April 2021 to the Durban Container Terminal (photo: Government Communication and Information Services)
"Brace yourself for a strike dragging on for a minimum of a week, possibly even longer," says an industry source. "I wouldn't be surprised if it runs longer than two weeks."
It's highly unlikely that Transnet will this week still satisfy the demands of the unions, he adds. The state-owned ports company is offering a 1.5% increase, rejected by unions.
Wage negotiations were meant to have been concluded months ago and any deal now concluded, would also have to include backpay from April this year.
In order to facilitate this, an Operations Stabilization Levy of R110 (6.2 euros) was levied against all container imports, exports, and transhipments handled at the container and the Multi-Purpose Terminals, intended for the period of 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, in order to address the deficit in Transnet's budget in relation to Transnet Port Terminal employees.
The May 2020 legal strike by port workers ran for three weeks and it is feared this could be a repeat.