Talks to end a sometimes violent truck driver strike that has
seen hundreds of petrol stations run dry, continued into the early
hours of Wednesday morning with no announcement yet, an official
said.
"Talks continued well into the early hours of this morning and
they will continue again later this morning [Wednesday]," said Road
Freight Employers' Association (RFEA) spokeswoman Magretia Brown.
"We are hoping that after 11am, we'll be in a position to report
to members as to the status of the negotiations," she added.
The RFEA is in talks with the SA Transport and Allied Workers'
Union (Satawu) whose members have been on strike since last
Tuesday.
The protest action has been marred by reports of intimidation
and violence and has caused at least 300 petrol stations, mainly in
townships, to run dry due to shortages in fuel deliveries.
Police fired rubber bullets at striking truck drivers who
assaulted two men in Johannesburg on Tuesday while a group of
strikers also stoned and looted a delivery van in Johannesburg.
On Gauteng's East Rand, a truck driver was assaulted and his
truck set alight in what seemed to be strike-related violence on
Tuesday, police reported.
The RFEA said on Tuesday afternoon that "the parties managed to
agree on all monetary issues, which include amongst others an
across the board increase of 11 percent".
The union was demanding a 13 percent increase.
The RFEA said the parties had reached a stalemate over Satawu's
demand that all terms of the negotiations should also extend to
employees who were not covered by the bargaining council and fell
outside of the bargaining unit.
"The unions cannot prove that they represent any of those people
that they want us to extend the agreement to," the RFEA said.
"The only outstanding reason for people to continue with the
strike is to support this issue."