The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has two days to respond to an ultimatum delivered yesterday by trade unions, failing which a strike by 70% of its workforce is likely to follow. About 500 SABC chanting employees marched on the public broadcaster’s head office at Auckland Park in Johannesburg yesterday and handed over a memorandum to acting group CEO Gab Mampone.
Union leaders said the strike would be on again if the SABC failed to respond to their members’ demands. Should the strike go ahead, there are fears that it would severely disrupt programming and result in a broadcasting blackout. The SABC says it has contingency plans to handle a strike, but has not released further details. These plans are widely expected to involve freelance labour and independent production companies, a sector which has already suffered from the SABC’s inability to pay its bills.
Workers are calling for a 12.2% salary increase across the board, as stipulated in an agreement signed last year, and an end to “corrupt leadership”. The SABC has made a differentiated offer of up to 10.25%. The three largest unions at the SABC - the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), the Media Workers’ Association of SA (Mwasa) and the Broadcast, Electronic Media and Allied Workers’ Union (Bemawu) - are co-ordinating their industrial action.
(Source: Business Day)
