Makro’s grim warning to striking workers

3 years ago 1

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Walmart-owned Massmart, which owns and operates Makro, Game, and Builders, has warned trade union Saccawu that its members are not irreplaceable and may even be redundant.

Saccawu told Sowetan it gave Massmart 48 hours’ notice for a planned strike on Friday, 27 January 2023, after wage negotiations at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration failed.

“At the core of the unresolved dispute is the attitude of the company to undermine collective bargaining,” Saccawu said.

“The company has placed conditions that are unacceptable in their latest offer, which is that the union abandon the bargaining unit. This means workers at Makro are to be left unrepresented by any union.”

Saccawu said it had no choice but to defend collective bargaining from Massmart’s management.

It also said it was galvanising other stores within the Massmart group to join the strike, including Game, Fruitspot, Builders Warehouse, Rhino, Shield and Jumbo.

However, Massmart disputed this version of events.

“Notwithstanding that the 2022 Makro negotiation cycle has closed, Saccawu has tabled new demands, including a two-year moratorium on retrenchments,” Massmart said in a statement on Thursday.

“This is in addition to their primary demands for a 12% wage increase and doubling of sales commission from 10% to 20%.”

Massmart said it’s clear that Saccawu intends to push the parties further apart rather than trying to find common ground.

“This appears to be the result of in-fighting within the union and is consistent with the incoherent and bad faith approach that the union has taken throughout the 2022 negotiation process.”

“Because we have closed the 2022 negotiation cycle, all these demands will now be handled in the 2023 wage negotiation cycle, which begins in March,” Massmart said.

Massmart says over 1,000 union members have resigned from Saccawu to accept its offer of a 4.5% wage increase.

“We will process 2022 increases plus back pay for Makro employees who choose to accept the company offer rather than to rely on Saccawu’s ability to reach a settlement,” it said.

The company assured that Makro has an exceptionally well-trained team of backup staff who have gained valuable experience and confidence thanks to Saccawu’s repeated strike action during the past four months.

“As such, we do not anticipate trading disruption in the event of Saccawu’s further strike action and will, in line with our recent experience, likely see an increase in productivity,” it said.

The warning to Saccawu and its members going on strike is clear — Makro could retrench them all and see improved performance across the company.