Nation counts cost of security strike

THERE was a huge sigh of relief across the country on Thursday when representatives of more than a dozen security guard unions appended their signatures to a wage deal, thereby ending a costly three-month strike that sparked violent protests and saw up to 60 people, many of them security guards who did not join the industrial action, needlessly losing their lives in the mayhem.

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), which brokered the deal, said striking guards were expected to return to work on Monday.

The agreement will see thousands of security guards, many of them members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) get annual wage increases of between 7,25% and 9,25% over a three-year period, beginning this year.

Unionised security guards, who account for about a quarter of the nearly 250 000 private security workers in South Africa, went on strike in March after demanding wage increases of more than double the current 3,7% inflation rate. While most unions accepted the 8,3% increase offered by employers, Satawu turned this down, demanding a better deal for its members.

That security guards are generally poorly paid and that their overall conditions of work leave much to be desired is not in dispute. The average security guard earns about R1 500 a month – just above the government’s minimum wage recommendation.

But could this ever be a justification for the violent demonstrations that ensued and pitted strikers against the police and disinterested parties? We believe that no matter how frustrated and angry the strikers were, nothing can justify the violence and brutal intimidation that was an everyday occurrence during the lengthy work stoppage.

Among the many ugly incidents that were reported were cases of passengers being hurled to their deaths from speeding trains and homes of non-striking guards being torched.

Without doubt the strikers, their representatives and their obstinate employers caused a lot of harm to the credibility and standing of their industry – particularly given that South Africans were already victims of unacceptably high crime rates before security guards, who are supposed to be a solution to the problem, ill-advisedly added to the crime trauma we suffer.

So, whither the security industry?

It is in the interests of all parties concerned in this matter to first apologise for the crisis they needlessly created and to commit to never again allowing a labour disagreement to degenerate into the type of civil disorder the nation experienced over the past few months.

Towards a 2010 thriller

AT last the first R53-million has come from the Eastern Cape transport department to get the metro up and ready for the 2010 World Cup matches to be played here. For those who feared that there would be some official dragging of feet, this is certainly a confidence booster.

It’s now up to the metro to immediately set deadlines to expedite work on the vital project on which the success of our stadium – and easy access to it – will depend.

We’re a city of many soccer fans – and they will be joined by masses more when the World Cup invasion starts in 2010.

So there must be no disputes, strikes or delays as we work all-out to make a huge success of our World Cup 2010 role – and our state-of-the-art stadium.

It is in all metro residents’ interests to put up with the inevitable inconvenience as they throw their support behind the local initiative, accepting the roadworks, the transport planning – and the preparations for legions of visitors.

Now’s the time for the metro – and the Eastern Cape at large – to work together in a cause which should promote a memorable 2010 for every Eastern Cape citizen – and for making our metro an international byword for offering every friend and every fan a superlative soccer experience.

Opinion