Communications Workers are finding their collective voice in Vodacom

Communications workers are finding their collective voice February 23, 2007In an action that unions have condemned as both illegal and stupid, Vodacom yesterday locked out workers from its Service Park centre in Sandton because they were wearing Communication Workers' Union (CWU) T-shirts. Most of 80 workers returning by bus from a company "team building exercise" at Muldersdrift were wearing their union shirts when they arrived. According to CWU shop stewards Aubrey Tshabalala and Gary van Niekerk, the workers were ordered to leave as they stepped off two buses. Security personnel were brought in and the doors of the premises were locked. "It looked like the whole management came down. They said we were causing unpleasant scenes and so we had to leave," says Tshabalala. "There was no disturbance, no protest. But more securities arrived, and some were armed." The workers sent for Van Niekerk, who arrived as they gathered at the boom. Some workers left, while others summoned help from union headquarters, which have been conducting a long-running dispute with Vodacom. For the CWU organisers, this was proof that Vodacom management is determined to crush the union. "Their action was illegal, but the illegality was exceeded only by the sheer stupidity," says CWU spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe. The action has inflamed an already tense situation and there were talks yesterday among trade union investment firms about raising awkward questions at the Vodacom annual general meeting next month. However, some CWU organisers think the latest action by Vodacom could provide a boost to union membership. Many Vodacom workers who are not CWU members have already been angered by comments reportedly made by Vodacom managing director Shameel Aziz-Jacoob. Minutes of a meeting held last August, in which Aziz-Jacoob expressed concern about growing union influence at Service Park, were leaked. The meeting was of the customer care division of the National Consultative Committee, established by Vodacom as an alternative to trade unions. Following Aziz-Jacoob's expressions of concern, the meeting resolved that the committee would "embark on educating the staff on the benefits of engaging with their reps instead of a union" as part of an "awareness campaign". Union members were enraged and decisions were made to redouble recruitment. The international Trade Union Solidarity Network provided funds for a dedicated organiser, and when membership topped 750 the union demanded recognition.
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The company refused because the CWU had not reached 30 percent of the workforce - the minimum threshold for recognition. However, no figures were available on the exact size of the workforce, so the matter went to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. Sithebe says: "There, finally, we got an official figure of 4 500, so we know exactly what to aim for." However, there have been increasing allegations of victimisation and of union stop order applications not being processed. Several workers say they have been told by supervisors that union membership will be "harmful" to their careers. It was against this background that the CWU launched a recruitment campaign last month to declare a dispute with Vodacom. Strike committees were established around the country. Yesterday the union claimed that such committees existed in every centre except Port Elizabeth. The Port Elizabeth strike committee was scheduled to be in place by this morning, when the CWU planned to issue a 48-hour notice of possible strike action to Vodacom. In preparation for this announcement, contact was made with communications workers' unions in Lesotho, Zambia and Tanzania, where Vodacom/Vodaphone operates. On Wednesday, union representatives from these countries met in Johannesburg with their CWU counterparts to discuss problems and agree on possible action. "Communication workers in these countries have similar problems to those we have, regarding both union recognition and conditions of work, so we are looking at combined action," says SithebeThe core of the dispute is recognition, which the unions see as essential to the protection of jobs and conditions and the promotion of skills training. Sithebe says: "We want to stress the skills aspect. Firms in the communications sector have made vast profits, but have not provided adequate training. Now we are faced with a great skills shortage and part of the reason for that is that we in the unions have not been strong enough." If the regional communications unions have anything to do with it, this situation is about to change.