A truck drivers' strike will have little effect on Internet-based retailers, who have put contingency plans in place to deliver goods to consumers.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) has gone on strike, after reaching a deadlock on Tuesday over a wage increase with employers in the sector.
The union wants the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry (NBCRFI) to agree to a 12% increase each year to 2012, and has rejected an 8.5% boost as well as a staggered 0.5% gain.
Media reports indicate that around 22 000 truck drivers have gone on strike, with some protest-related incidents turning violent.
Satawu has warned it intends to intensify the strike action in a bid to force employers to meet its demands. "We intend to ignite further sympathy and solidarity strikes from our members in sectors, such as maritime and freight rail, in an effort to ensure that no goods and parcels move till the road freight workers' demands are fully met," the union said in a statement.
Plans in place
However, online retailers that make use of couriers are not expecting much disruption to deliveries, and were looking at contingency plans before the long-weekend's threatened standstill.
Daniel Guasco, CEO of Groupon SA, expects little to no impact on Groupon's operations as a result of the strike. "In the unlikely event of this impacting Groupon's logistics, the company has put in place contingency plans to mitigate this risk."
NetFlorist CEO Ryan Bacher says the group should be able to make alternative plans so the strike will not have a marked impact on its business. The online florist says about 15% of its orders are delivered by couriers.
Incredible Connection CEO Marco van Niekerk explains that its service provider, RAM, has a wage agreement in place with its staff and is not set to strike. "It is our hope that, because RAM will not have any striking staff, they should thus be able to provide their normal service levels of delivering and collecting stock from our stores."
Intimidation from other striking workers might affect the industry, but impact on Incredible Connection should be limited, says Van Niekerk.
However, WantItAll, which delivers everything via courier, says while its courier service is delivering as normal at the moment, a delivery failure would be a serious problem. COO Terence Murphy expects very little impact, with delays limited to two days.
"We will continue to operate as normal. If there is violent strike action and couriers are being attacked, we will experience a delay, but everything gets delivered eventually," says Murphy. He adds that the company has options in case things get out of control, such as using owner-drivers.
WantItAll's couriers have been training temps to take over from the strikers, who will wear civilian clothes and hire unmarked trucks, says Murphy.
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