JRA workers blame management for protests
Workers say they feel their grievances are only heard when they protest.
JOHANNESBURG - Striking Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA)
employees say they feel their grievances are only heard when they protest.
Yesterday, workers affiliated to the South African Municipal
Workers Union (Samwu) marched from the company's offices to the City of
Johannesburg's offices in Braamfontein to hand over a memorandum of
grievances.
They say they're striking for a number of reasons, including
not getting a seven percent pay increase promised to them last year.
One of the demands included in the memorandum the immediate dismissal of the
JRA's Mohale Matsuma.
"We are demanding that he be suspended immediately and there
are procedures to follow," a worker said.
Outside the city's offices, workers chanted for the return
of Skhumbuzo Macozoma who abruptly resigned as the company's managing director
last year.
Workers say they want to be heard without going on strike.
"They keep quiet and only when workers march to the offices,
that's when they decide to communicate," a worker said.
They also claim the agency unilaterally changed policies
around recruitment and performance bonuses.
Yesterday's protests saw streets being strewn with litter, traffic lights being
vandalised and traffic in the CBD being severely affected.
