‘Mother of all strikes’ ready to paralyse SAA

As if their financial dire straits and the plan that they would have to retrench about 900 people were not enough, the national carrier South African Airways (SAA) is also facing the threat of a strike, which would see its entire fleet of planes grounded.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) yesterday released a joint statement in which they condemned SAA for informing workers of its intention to restructure and retrench workers through a media statement.

SAA management on Monday issued a media release claiming acting CEO “Zuks Ramasia has commenced a consultation process with all employees in line with section 189 of the Labour Relations Act”.

According to the unions, however, there has been no such consultations, and they learnt of the plan through a media statement, indicating SAA’s intention of a restructure that could affect 944 employees.

The unions said they had been in wage talks with management, with the last meeting convening on Monday.

“We have placed our demands on the table and SAA is unwilling to consider our demands because they claim they do not have money,” they claimed in a statement.

According to Numsa and Sacca, pilots at SAA recently received a 5.9% wage increase because of an agreement they have signed with the airline.

“But our demands for an increase of 8% have been denied. This is why we are questioning the timing of this announcement. It is a veiled threat to get workers to drop their demands for wage increases and for the removal of the SAA board. They want to strike fear into the hearts of our members. We condemn the management with the contempt they deserve,” the statement reads.

The unions said they also raised the issue of SAA paying millions for forensic investigations with no action taken on the outcomes.

“We want to know why management has been refusing to implement the findings of the Open Waters report into SAAT and an Ernst and Young report, as well as other forensic investigations into corruption at SAA. At the meeting, they were unable to explain why senior executives named in these forensic reports have not been suspended in line with the recommendations made.”

The unions questioned the basis on which SAA management intended to restructure when the organisational redesign had not been completed.

“They cannot embark on section 189 without having first completed this process.”

The National Transport Movement (NTM) union have also accused SAA of using the proposed retrenchments as a bargaining tool to avoid increasing wages, after the company increased salaries for pilots.

NTM president Mashudu Raphetha said the union was not surprised at the way SAA was trying to shift the focus away from the increased salaries for pilots by 5.9% (almost R123 million), while the company refused to increase salaries for ground staff and cabin crew.

“They are doing this to avoid increasing wages of non-pilot employees. We call on them to treat employees equally,” Raphetha said. “The retrenchments are not justifiable as we had a section 189A process in 2015. SAA failed to address how much they saved out of that process.”

Cosatu’s national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the union federation was deeply disturbed by the proposed job losses. It was unfair to retrench workers while the decision-makers were not paying any price for their failures, he said.

“The exorbitantly corrupt packages that continue to be paid to senior managers, while they are continuing to retrench workers, must also go.”

The unions accused management of “running away from holding” senior executives at the airline accountable for corruption and theft.

“It is clear the board wants to protect certain high ranking managers for actively destroying the airline after years of systematic looting.”

Numsa and Sacca called for the SAA board “to be scrapped”, saying it was “not fit to run the airline”.

“We will be preparing workers for the mother of all strikes at SAA. We have already received a strike certificate and we have concluded the balloting process.”

SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said the airline was not yet able to quantify possible savings the retrenchments would bring about at this stage as there is not finality on the number.

“The actual number of employees who may be impacted will be known once the consultation process has taken place,” he said.

Tlali said the company would engage in consultations with recognised labour where the details will be discussed.

“SAA would prefer to engage with labour on this before sharing details publicly.”

If retrenchments become unavoidable, Tlali said the effective date will be on March 31, 2020.

– gcinan@citizen.co.za

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