The street outside MTN’s plush head office near Roodepoort in Johannesburg resembled a war zone on Friday as striking workers burnt tyres and barricaded the entrance amid claims that police had used teargas and fired rubber bullets.
A driver going past the facility tweeted that the police were shooting rubber bullets and teargas, and warned people to avoid the area.
MTN said it has deployed extra security personnel as a precautionary measure to safeguard non-striking employees and protect its infrastructure and facilities.
“MTN will take disciplinary steps and lay criminal charges against employees who are implicated in acts of criminality,” said MTN South Africa chief human resources executive Themba Nyathi in a statement.
“Resorting to acts of violence and intimidation is not in the spirit of negotiations and violates the laws of the land.”
But in a defiant statement on its Facebook page — and apparently borrowing from a famous speech by British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill — the Communication Workers Union (CWU) warned it will take the fight to MTN.
“We shall defend our rights to strike. Whatever the cost may be, we shall fight at every MTN warehouse/office/franchise, we shall fight in your fancy courts, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender to the peanuts you (MTN) feel deamed (sic) rightfully ours!”
The CWU accused MTN of neglecting workers’ demands. Strikers have called for the network to be shut down, saying management is not budging because it’s only its call centre that is not operational as a result of the strike.
“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall,” the union tweeted.
MTN reiterated that it will not budge on the offer tabled to striking employees and promised to bring all operations back to working order as quickly as possible. In a statement, it said its core operations were running “optimally”.
It dismissed claims that strikers had suspended numerous customer accounts, a claim made earlier in the week to a Johannesburg-based talk radio station. It said that only some distribution and service centres were affected, with the 808 call centre “not yet fully operational”.
It condemned the striking workers, accusing them of burning tyres on MTN premises, intimidating non-striking employees and barricading exits.
“This unruly conduct is in violation of the picketing agreement that MTN signed with the CWU,” Nyathi said in the statement. “MTN will be taking stern measures to safeguard its employees and protect its right to conduct business and offer services to its customers in line with its licence obligations.”
MTN said that it was aware of claims that its “security personnel at its head office had subjected protesting employees to derogatory and racial slurs”. An MTN security official was accused of using the K-word in reference to the strikers.
The company said it rejects any form of discrimination because this is out of kilter with its values and the spirit of the constitution.
MTN maintains that its offer is better than the CWU demanded initially. It is offering an 8% guaranteed bonus, which will be payable in two instalments. The first payment was made on March 2015, and the second instalment will be payable in December 2015.
In addition, MTN said it has welcomed the establishment of a task team to look into payment for work done on Sundays and public holidays, in accordance with the provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.
“The current revised MTN bonus model for 2015 and beyond is comprehensive, visionary and exceeds all previous expectations and demands,” said Nyathi. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media
