Distell, the South African-based global distillery, says it has put in place risk-mitigation measures to ensure minimal or no disruption of operations at its Adam Tas Road site in Stellenbosch, following strike action by some workers on Monday (6 February).
Close to 50 Distell workers affiliated to labour union Solidarity protested in front of the plant demanding organisational and bargaining rights.
“While we respect the union’s right to strike, we do not believe the strike is warranted nor does it have merit,” said Dennis Matsane, a spokesperson for Distell.
Raymond Holland-Chapman of Solidarity, however, says the workers are well within their rights, and their strike was tantamount to a peaceful protest.
Cedric Arendse, one of the protesters, claimed the workers were tired of the erstwhile trade unions they had belonged to, and joined Solidarity to be protected.
“We are tired of the Fawu [Food and Allied Workers’ Union] and NUFBWSAW [National Union of Food, Beverage, Wine, Spirit and Allied Workers],” he said. “They do not act in our interests, only that of the company. We have not received any increases in the last three years, and that’s why we are requesting organisational and bargaining rights, so Solidarity can negotiate on our behalf.”
Matsane, however, says at Distell organisational rights and the right to bargain are awarded to unions with a 20% bargaining-unit member representation at national level.
“Solidarity does not meet this criteria, as it has a national membership of only 10%,” he pointed out. “In terms of numbers, Solidarity has 120 members across Distell operations, both within and outside the bargaining unit. In all, 105 of these members are based at Adam Tas, 85 within the bargaining unit and 20 outside it. This makes them a minority union at Distell.”
Holland-Chapman, however, said Solidarity had 175 members at the Adam Tas site. “We have tried to negotiate, but Distell won’t budge, and all we want is to be the voice of the workers and to act in their interests,” he said.
Matsane said Distell’s position on the matter was also validated by the CCMA, which issued an advisory in July 2022 encouraging Solidarity to withdraw its dispute until such time as they had a 20% membership threshold at national level, which would grant them organisational rights as well as the right to be recognised as a collective bargaining agent.
“The CCMA also shares our view that any deviation from Distell’s existing bargaining structure will negatively impact on the orderly collective bargaining process,” he said. “We therefore find it very unfortunate that, notwithstanding all these facts, Solidarity has still chosen to strike. We will, however, continue to engage the union in the hopes of finding common ground.”
