NovaNam strikers arrested at Lüderitz

THE Police Task Force has arrested five striking workers at the NovaNam fish-processing factory at Lüderitz for allegedly violating a court order barring them from picketing within 400 metres of the factory.

They are Fillipus Ndapona (28), Jonas Johannes (38), Petrina Kandowa (40), Hosea Charles Amesho (36) and Sakaria Joseph (40).
Their arrests on Thursday night and Friday morning followed shortly after Police rounded up Namibia Seamen and Allied Workers Union (Nasawu) branch organiser Petrus Shiyandja at the Letu Cash Wash on Wednesday night.
Shiyandja and the five striking workers requested bail, but it could not be granted because a senior court clerk who acted as assistant magistrate at their court hearings does not have the power to grant them bail.
All of them face a charge of failing to comply with a court order and are set to return to court on February 3.
The assistant magistrate had to preside over the hearing because the Lüderitz Magistrate is still on leave, The Namibian was informed.
The state prosecutor’s position at the Lüderitz Magistrate’s Court is also not filled yet following the transfer of its prosecutor to another duty station at the end of December, The Namibian was informed.
Close to 1 000 workers camping some 500 metres from the factory gates went on strike on December 8 after wage negotiations reached a deadlock.
The workers are demanding a 7.5 per cent increased while the company offered five per cent.
The workers vowed to stay put until their demands are met.

FACING DISMISSAL

The NovaNam company management has threatened to fire the striking workers if they fail to return to work by tomorrow, The Namibian has established.
The company also decided not to increase wages despite its earlier offer, citing huge production losses since the start of the strike.
The Namibian has reliably learnt that the company is losing about N$900 000 a day because of the ongoing strike. On Friday, Karas Governor Dawid Boois and Lüderitz Constituency Councillor David Shoombee had closed-door talks with union members and company management in a bid to have the strike called off, but to no avail.
The parties are set to resume talks this morning.
Commenting on the possible dismissal of the workers, Nasawu President Paulus Hango yesterday challenged the management to sack the strikers.
‘The company has no right to terminate the service of the striking workers unless if it follows the jungle’s Labour Act,’ he said angrily.
‘Let them proceed to sack the striking workers. We’re going to test the new Labour Act in the High Court,’ he added. Hango also expressed disquiet over the arrest of the striking workers, accusing the local Police of ‘openly siding with the company management’.
According to Hango, NovaNam workers are the lowest paid in the fishing industry.

POLICE DENIAL

The acting Karas Police Regional Commander, Chief Inspector Nicky Nampala, has denied allegations that the Police had treated the striking workers in a rude manner.
According to one of the strikers, Gerson Josea, the Police punched and kicked some striking workers in their stomachs. Gerson also claimed that Police officers had used abusive language when they confiscated some blankets, clothes and water bottles belonging to the striking workers – claims that Namapala denied too.
Namapala said the Police only collected some of the striking workers’ property that they had deliberately left behind when the Police moved them 400 metres away from the factory.
He said the property was in Police safekeeping.
‘Any of the striking workers are free to come and claim their property at the local Police station,’ he said.