Workers down tools at three power stations

Eskom says supply not yet affected and calls strike illegal

WORKERS at three South African power stations downed tools on Monday, with more set to follow, after wage talks at state-run utility Eskom stalled.

The company branded the stoppage illegal, but said its operations had not yet been affected.

Eskom provides almost all the power in the country, which is on the verge of recession and already grappling with a strike in the fuel sector that has caused some shortages.

A potential stoppage is also looming in the car industry.

Paris Mashego, the energy sector co-ordinator at the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said wage talks with the utility were deadlocked. “We hoped Eskom would present a better offer and it did not,” he said.

He said about 1 500 of the union’s members had gone on strike at the three stations.

The stoppage is the latest problem to beset cash-strapped Eskom, which has struggled to meet power demand in South Africa due to its ageing power plants and grid, but has managed almost a year without the rolling blackouts that have hurt the economy in the past.

An Eskom spokesman said operations had not yet been affected and reiterated the utility’s view that its members were prohibited by law from striking.

Essential service

“Across all of our 27 power stations everything is operating as normal at this stage,” spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said. “And no-one from Eskom is allowed to go on strike, because we are defined as essential service providers. Technically anyone who is not at work today (Monday) will have to explain themselves to their bosses.”

Eskom did not believe that negotiations had collapsed, he said. The utility is offering pay hikes of 7 percent to 9 percent, while NUM is looking for increases ranging from 12 percent to 13 percent.

Phasiwe said NUM members had blocked roads leading to the Arnot power station east of Johannesburg early on Monday morning, but police had been called in and the roads were cleared.

The utility said it had unspecified contingency plans in place in the event the NUM strike widened or became prolonged.

NUM has around 15 000 members at Eskom, close to a third of its workforce.

Petrochemicals

The stoppage coincides with a strike over wages by around 15 000 workers in the petrochemical industry that showed no signs of ending on Monday.

“Following the failure of wage negotiations last Friday, workers are continuing with the strike,” said Clement Chitja, the head of collective bargaining at the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union.

South Africa’s petroleum industry did not anticipate any fuel shortages for the rest of this week as the strike entered its second week, a senior official said on Monday.

Also on Monday, the Automotive Manufacturers Employers Organisation said wage talks had stalled, but that it was confident of averting a strike in the sector, which is a key source of exports.

In 2013, an automotive strike cost South Africa’s economy R600 million a day in lost production. – Reuters