Strike suspended, anger ensues
2010-09-06 16:00
National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) leaders in Johannesburg were chased out of a meeting by angry civil servants when they announced a decision to suspend the strike, a union member has claimed.
A Nehawu member, Ndiitwani Ramarumo, said union leaders were chased out of the meeting in Johannesburg this afternoon.
“Members are angry and they want to protest by going to the national office to burn their membership cards,” said Ramarumo.
Public service unions were expected to announce the suspension of the strike this afternoon in Centurion.
The Gauteng Central branch of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) general secretary Ronald Nyathi confirmed that teachers were expected to report back to work tomorrow.
“Teachers are not happy but after we learnt that some unions belonging to Cosatu and the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC) accepted the government’s offer, we realised we can’t carry on with the strike alone,” he said.
A Sadtu site steward, Tiego Tawana, said Sadtu members were angry and viewed unions who have accepted government's pay offer as having sold out the workers.
Nehawu’s spokesperson, Sizwe Pamla, said leaders of Cosatu-affiliated unions and the ILC were locked in a meeting and would thereafter make an announcement on whether they have accepted government’s offer.
Pamla, however, denied that Nehawu had signed the agreement and said he could only wait for the expected announcement. He said he had not received reports of the alleged incident in Johannesburg as he was at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC).
Sadtu’s national deputy secretary, Nkosana Dolopi, also said the decision would be announced at the press briefing and refused to speculate on it.
- City Press