Strikers cripple local economy

LEPHALALE - It has been five weeks since an estimated 7000 workers belonging to the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) first went on strike on 10 January, forcing Eskom to close the Medupi building site near Lephalale.
Reports surfaced in the media this week that the site will remain closed for the next three months after strikers halted work on the project at the beginning of this year. But Eskom spokesperson, Hillary Joffe, told Northern News that “talks have been proceeding so we are hope for a resolution soon.”
Eskom has made it clear that the site will remain closed until it is safe for employees to return to work.
“We are not far from a resolution,” said NUMSA general secretary, Irvin Gim. “We are also concerned that this strike, which was imposed on the workers by their employers, is still underway. We want to see a resolution as soon as possible and we believe that the strike could end this coming weekend.”
Gim is, however, adamant that workers will continue to strike until a better labour agreement can be negotiated. “They will not return to work until we are assured that unlawful labour practices as stipulated in the current project labour agreement (PLA) are removed.
NUMSA submitted their withdrawal notice from the PLA on 17 January and is currently serving their six months’ notice.
“We withdrew from the PLA because certain elements of the agreement undermine the national Labour Act as set out by government. Medupi is not an island and all employers must adhere to the law.
“If employers sign an agreement saying that we can negotiate certain clauses within the PLA, the strike will end today.”
Some of the issues NUMSA is not happy with relates to worker’s rights to bargain and negotiate for better salaries and their rights to submit demands and organize protected strikes.

Local business suffers
The strike has also had a serious impact on businesses in Lephalale, chairperson of the Lephalale business chamber, Wayne Derksen, said in a statement this week. “The trade unions have valid concerns with the PLA and other issues, but I believe that their point has been made and now this action is really negatively affecting people’s lives.
“Contractors and sub-contractors who do not have preliminary and general costs agreements (P&G’S) in their contracts have had no income for the last five weeks. These people can only invoice for work done. No work has been done.
“This results in the next impact: Contractors and businesses cannot pay their fixed overheads and with salaries not paid workers can also not pay rent, bonds, vehicle payments, food and clothes.
“Turnover for food outlets, banks, furniture shops, clothing stores, fuel outlets and especially accommodation and catering businesses in town have dropped between 30 and 90 percent. It has been estimated but not confirmed that around R90 000 000.00 is lost per day in Lephalale due to the strike,” Derksen added.
On Wednesday morning Eskom responded to media inquiries with a press release stating that the latest spate of disruptions to the build project are primarily caused by contractor employees of Alstom (Kentz, Sisonke) and Hitachi (Kaefer, M&R Projects).
“To date several sessions are being held with NUMSA, Principal Contractors and Eskom where various proposals have been tabled for consideration.”
But concern is mounting that Medupi will not be able to provide electricity to the grid by the end of this year as planned.
“We are behind schedule. We will need more man hours on site to recover lost time,”  Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba told the media this week adding that he still believes it is possible to meed the end-of-year deadline.
Meanwhile the Lephalale community holds its breath in the hope that all will return to normal soon and that it will see no further violent strike action.