Early one Spring morning, petrol pump attendants at Pinetown garage, UDS Motors, stopped pumping! They were fed up with the employer acting like an unwabu (chameleon) regarding their issues.
Local organiser, Henry Myende was called in to resolve the issue. On his arrival he found workers sitting on the bowsers, only the boss was working.
When he spoke to workers he found they were not happy with the new shift system and the fact that the shop steward could not attend the local shop steward council because of this shift system.
Management agreed to meet with the trade union. Satisfied that the Numsa official would meet with management, workers went back to work.In the meeting, management agreed that:* workers working the late shift would be given R50 a week towards transport. Workers who had problems finding transport on that shift were put on an earlier shift.* the shop steward working day shift would be allowed to attend the local shop steward council every Tuesday* it would address other small issues like cancelling of warnings with shop stewards. * communication with management and shop stewards would improve and there would be no more abusive language from the boss.
“Working collectively and being united as workers gets you good results,” says Myende. “Being divided brings defeat.”