Striking SAMWU workers hand over memorandum

By Celeste Ganga
02 October 2007

On Tuesday the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) Johannesburg branch handed over a memorandum to the City of Johannesburg.

“We have 10 000 SAMWU members working in the City of Johannesburg, we hereby call on the City to meet our demands,” says SAMWU Johannesburg Chairperson, Moatlhodi Mongale.

The City of Johannesburg has called on the union to act with restraint and to return to the negotiating table so that their grievances can be addressed.

Some of the demands from SAMWU includes: equal pay for work of equal value, the re-introduction of the yearly notch increases and travelling on municipal buses to and from work without paying.

“Failing to meet our demands will result in an indefinite strike across the province. We have been discussing this issue for a number of years and they have not taken workers seriously.” says Mongale.

The City urges its employees to continue rendering services to the public, seeing as though 70% to 90% of employees had turned up for work. The City of Johannesburg has condemned the acts of intimidation by striking municipal workers.