Wendy Jasson da Costa
wendy.jassondacosta@inl.co.za
FOUR Durban port workers were arrested and charged with assault following an altercation between members and non-members of the Services Industry Employees Union on Friday.
Ntokozo Nzuza, of the Marine Workers Concerned Group, assisted the four who had been arrested. Yesterday he said the men, who were not members of the union, had been held at Durban Central police station since Friday.
He said the workers had gone to fetch their belongings from a warehouse used by the union on Friday when they were attacked, apparently for breaking away from a labour broking company favoured by the union and joining a new company.
Last night they were waiting for an urgent bail application to be heard in the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
Willie Cira, the union’s organiser, said his workers had been attacked at berth 204 in Pier 1 on Friday night. He accused the non-unionised “illegitimate” workers of using gun butts and batons to beat up the others.
“Workers went to hospital; one guy was in a very serious (condition)…,” said Cira.
He said the problem stemmed from a stevedoring company which had failed to use the existing labour pool in the harbour and had decided to bypass the labour broking company which was generally used to provide workers.
“There was no written agreement to use pool labour, but the stevedoring companies gave their word,” said Cira.
At the time of going to press, the company could not be reached for comment. Transnet had also not responded to questions on the incident.
In an interview on Friday, Cira blamed the conflict between the union and non-members on a company which had refused to use non-unionised members.
He said they would not allow companies to abuse workers because non-unionised labour was available.
While conducting the interview, Cira was told that non-unionised workers were to be used in the harbour that afternoon, and immediately called for a work stoppage in the port.
As his union’s members filtered into the Hershel Road warehouse from which he operates, a meeting was held, informing them of the strike.
Cira said the “decision to withdraw all labour” ended at about 5pm on Saturday after the company at the heart of the matter agreed to resolve the issue today.
Last week, The Mercury quoted insiders saying operations at the port were being run in a “mafia-like” fashion in which companies could employ workers only through certain labour brokers and that workers were being charged a fee for every shift worked.
