Namibia: TransNamib Strike 'Illegal'
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
8 September 2008
Posted to the web 8 September 2008
Denver Isaacs
THE Labour Court has ordered striking TransNamib workers to return to their posts.
An interim order issued by the President of the Labour Court, Judge Louis Muller, on Saturday declared the strike illegal.
As the strike crippled rail and road transport towards the end of last week, the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) issued a press statement saying it would not negotiate a compromise, regardless of the strike's consequences for the national economy.
But yesterday, a unionist indicated that the strike might be suspended while negotiations continue.
The workers downed tools last Wednesday after unsuccessfully demanding the removal of the entire TransNamib Board of Directors and the reinstatement of suspended CEO Titus Haimbili, who was sent home in early August while the board investigated allegations of corruption against him.
The Namibian Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Natau) and the umbrella NUNW on Friday met with President Hifikepunye Pohamba and the Minister of Works and Transport, Helmut Angula, to discuss how to end the strike.
Sources spoken to over the weekend said Minister Angula warned at Friday's meeting that workers who did not return to work by today would risk losing their jobs.
The Works Ministry issued a statement on Friday afternoon, calling on workers at the parastatal to go back to work.
"As the minister under which the parastatal resorts, I am calling upon TransNamib workers countrywide to have the interests of the Namibian people at heart and therefore put personal or group interests aside," Angula said.
"The country has lost enormously in business transactions here at home as well as its confidence with the international community in the past few days," he pointed out.
Angula further spoke out against NUNW's threat of calling a national strike of all its members this week.
"I also appeal to other enterprises in the country to refrain from unprocedural and unlawful protests that affect workers of their enterprises and their immediate families in the medium and long terms.
When manufacturing and mining production plants stop because of lack of input, it subsequently will have an effect on the ordinary workers," the minister said.
Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Natau General Secretary John Kwedhi said the union had not yet received any court order, and that workers were expected to continue the strike this morning.
Commenting on Friday's meeting, he said the union had agreed in principle to a possible suspension of the strike while negotiations continue.
He said, however, that the union was calling for the suspension of TransNamib Board chairman Festus Lameck while Haimbili's investigation was underway.
"The CEO and the chairperson are both in the centre of this issue.
So neither of them should play a part in the investigation.
TransNamib is telling us that they have an independent auditor doing the investigation, but we need confirmation," Kwedhi said.
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The court order, besides ordering workers back to their posts, also calls for the unlocking of all gates and removal of all barriers that the strikers have apparently put up to prevent non-striking workers from entering the company's premises.
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