20100412
ALLAFRICA

Pretoria — At least 130 000 South Africa Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) members are expected to embark on a nationwide strike today.

Members in Johannesburg are expected to hand over a memorandum to the SA Local Government Association's (Salga) office.

The workers' demands include amongst other things market related wages.

The union is also calling for changes to be made to the way employees are evaluated and the disciplinary code that municipalities use.

The union has also accused Salga of firing workers, thereby undermining service delivery and wasting money on expensive lawyers to handle labour related cases.

Samwu Deputy General Secretary Walter Theledi told BuaNews that the strike will continue until their demands are met.

"We are open for negotiations with Salga, but until such time, the strike continues. We will continue to fight for quality service delivery. Municipalities must use their resources correctly, to fund service delivery and not waste it," he said.