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We, leaders of mining and maritime unions representing workers from Canada, the United States, Australia and South Africa meeting in Johannesburg on 29-30 May, express our serious concern with the violation of workers’ rights in South Africa by security companies, many of which are multinational corporations, such as Chubb, Securicor, Group Four and ADT.
Their refusal to bargain in good faith with the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU) is resulting in prolonging the current dispute. Given that the strike has been on since 23 March 2006, we strongly urge the security companies to return to the negotiating table and focus on resolving the dispute in the interests of changing the low wage situation of security workers.
We are horrified by the fact that employers in an industry which recorded super profits in the last financial year would not recognize the importance of their workers and stubbornly refuse to seek an resolution to this dispute by raising the current offer by a mere R31 per month, equaling approximately US$5/month.
SATAWU’s demands of an 11% across the board increase, and four months paid maternity leave are considered very reasonable in the circumstances given the difficult working conditions of security workers.
We warn that failure to resolve this dispute soon could result in the escalation of the battle to the operations of these multinational companies beyond South Africa’s borders to Australia, Canada and the USA.
Statement issued on behalf of the mining and maritime unions coordinating committee by SATAWU, National Union of Mineworkers (South Africa), United Steelworkers, Maritime Union of Australia, and Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (Australia).
Contact:
John Maitland
National Secretary
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union of Australia
Chairman
Mining and Maritime International Coordinating Committee
Tel: +61 418 286 781
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