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Traffic snarl-up as striking post office workers march [Pretoria News (South Africa)]
[October 31, 2014]

Traffic snarl-up as striking post office workers march [Pretoria News (South Africa)]


(Pretoria News (South Africa) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TRAFFIC in the city came to a standstill yesterday afternoon as casual employees of the SA Post Office (Sapo) took to the streets and marched to the Union Buildings to deliver memorandums of demands.



Sapo casual employees are still on a two-month long strike. It has affected mail centres across Tshwane, Joburg and Ekurhuleni since August 18.

The Communication Workers' Union (CWU) rejected the post office's last proposal which offered a 6 percent demand for the post office to offer permanent employment to all its members, as well as an 8 percent wage increase.


The hundreds of CWU members marched to deliver their demands to the Treasury and to telecommunications provider, Telkom.

The first memorandum calls for the government to inject funds into Sapo bearing in mind its current financial position and to stop utilising the private sector for international courier freights they claim cost the state more than R20 billion a year.

The second memorandum calls on Telkom to pay its workers the correct gain sharing as per the initial agreement with the union.

The workers also want the|withdrawal of all termination letters forcefully imposed on workers.

A further call is made to the government to buy back Telkom and Vodacom for developmental objectives in South Africa.

The workers danced and chanted along the way with other union members following behind in vehicles, while marshals had sjamboks to maintain order.

Police kept a close eye on proceedings.

Johan Kruger of the Sapo communications division said the post office had already given the unions a counter-proposal to consider.

The post office was hoping for a response by Tuesday next week.

"About 540 post office employees were absent from work in Gauteng due to the march, but operations in the Polokwane area have resumed.

"The post office is now focusing on the eMalahleni mail centre which is not yet operational," according to Sapo.

Pretoria News (c) 2014 Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited. All rights strictly reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

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