Transnet strike warning

The biggest labour union at South Africa’s state-owned port and rail company are starting final talks with a third-party arbitrator to resolve a wage dispute and stave off a potential strike by thousands of workers.  

Should the talks taking place at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on Wednesday and Thursday fail, the United National Transport Union, which represents more than half of the more than 46,000 employees at Transnet, will issue a 48-hour strike notice, UNTU said in a statement. 

Members of the union this week approved “taking to the streets” to have their wage demands met, UNTU said. 

UNTU rejected an offer by the company to increase pay by 6% over the next two years and 5.5% in the third year, instead demanding 10% in the first year alone.

The smaller South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union accepted the pay offer in March. The nation’s annual inflation slowed to 2.7% in March. 

The wage dispute comes as Transnet works to recover from years of corruption, theft and deal with dilapidated equipment that has posed a key threat to the South African economy and its exports.

Inefficient rail lines and ports have sent coal and iron ore exports to multi-decade lows and cost the nation more than R400 billion in 2022, according to the Treasury. 

A World Bank study ranks key ports run by Transnet, which has 138 billion rand of debt,  among the least efficient worldwide.