Stocks dwindle as trucking striking continues

12 Oct 2012

While the labour court granted a court order on Friday instructing transport unions to take steps to prevent further violence and intimidation‚ the ongoing truck drivers' strike is affecting fuel deliveries as well as stock deliveries to retailers across the country.

The Road Freight Employers Association (RFEA) appeared before the labour court in "an attempt to address the violence that has tainted the strike to date"‚ according to the association's executive officer Magretia Brown-Engelbrecht.

"In essence‚ the order made it tougher on the unions to continue with irregular strike action‚" she said.

More than 20‚000 truck drivers have been on strike over the past two weeks‚ affecting the operations of major retailers‚ fuel stations‚ businesses and ATMs.

Colen Garrow of Meganomics said on Friday the strikes would subtract "somewhere around 0.3%" of South Africa's gross domestic product. "The cost to the economy is rising‚" he said.

Brown-Engelbrecht said if the violent strike continued‚ "it will undoubtedly result in dramatic job losses".

"Apart from the reality of envisaged job losses‚ capitulating to the unions' current demands will have a severe impact on commodity prices and inflation."

Neal Quirk‚ operations director at Pick n Pay‚ said on Friday that although contingency plans were in place at Pick n Pay in anticipation of the strike‚ "we are starting to see an impact on stock levels at stores".

This was particularly apparent in fresh produce and poultry‚ he said.

"We started to work on contingency plans before the strike began and are trying our best to get stock into stores and to minimise disruption to our customers".

Quirk said Pick n Pay "sincerely hopes that the strike will be amicably resolved soon".

Woolworths said on Friday that it had encountered stock issues and the retailer had experienced some absenteeism in certain areas as a result of the drivers' strike.

"However‚ we have adequate contingency plans in place to keep our stores open and to deliver fresh produce as well as other products to our stores".

Earlier on Friday‚ fuel company Shell declared force majeure (unavoidable occurrence) on fuel deliveries in Gauteng due to the strike‚ meaning they cannot be held liable for not delivering fuel.

Jacqui O'Sullivan‚ group communications manager at Sasol‚ said on Friday "there have been some disruptions" in terms of fuel deliveries.

Sasol promised to issue an update on Friday. Engen and BP have not commented to I-Net-Bridge.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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