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dam-l Labor unrest over privatized water/LS
Daily Dispatch (South Africa) 13/8/99
Workers on strike at private water company
EAST LONDON -- About 60 members at a privatised water company in Queenstown
went on strike this week over what employees said were broken promises.
The company, Water and Sanitation Services South Africa (WSSA), is a
subsidiary of French water giant Lyonnaise Des Eaux, which has bid for every
municipal water contract put out to tender so far.
Four years ago WSSA concluded a contract at local level which privatised the
town's water supply. The South African Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) says
local authority workers were tricked into supporting this contract after
WSSA promised higher salaries, no job losses, training and opportunities for
development.
The strike comes on top of a wage deadlock where the union is set to go to
conciliation at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration
on August 13. Samwu wants R250 a week whilethe company is offering R210 a
week. The union says this offer is less than the increase agreed upon for
all other municipal workers in the country at wage negotiations. -- DDR
http://www.dispatch.co.za/1999/08/13/easterncape/WATER.HTM
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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