The SA Transport and Allied Workers Union has confirmed that its members at Translux and City-to-City bus services have concluded an agreement "at shopfloor" with employers, thus ending their participation in the country-wide strike.
The two services fall under Autopax, a wholly owned subsidiary of Transnet.
Satawu national spokesperson, Zanele Sabela, said Saturday that "it appears" that their members and other union members at Translux and City-to-City settled on an 8.5% across the board increase.
She told Algoa FM News that the agreement was sent to Satawu to "look over" and "as far as I know that is still happening. "But, these things do happen unfortunately. Companies will try to break the back of unions by doing that and so it happened in this case".
Sabela said that the Autopax deal and the actions of their shop stewards at floor level will be discussed during their post-strike analysis.
Metal workers union Numsa issued a terse statement Saturday saying that "no agreement" had been signed with any employers in the bus passenger sector.
"We only negotiate through the Bargaining Council, and we wish to re-iterate that it is NUMSA policy that only the General Secretary can sign agreements on behalf of the union," said Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi.
News of the Autopax wage agreement came as Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant called a meeting with striking unions in a bid to break the wage impasse so as to ensure that passengers are no longer left stranded over the Easter long weekend.
On Thursday, Transport Minister, Joe Mawanganyi, called on provincial traffic authorities to issue temporary and special operating licenses to other modes of transport, notably the taxi industry to help relieve the pressure caused by the country-wide bus strike.
