By Dickens Wasonga
It is official. The country must now prepare for yet another round of total darkness as the over 12000 KPLC staff begins a nationwide strike as from next week.
Speaking to reporters in Kisumu the national vice chairman of Kenya Electrical Trades and Allied Workers Union Mr. Vincent Okulo said although a meeting is scheduled between the union and KPLC top management for the October 17th , this will no avert the looming strike.
Okulo said the meeting will only discuss the delayed Collective Bargaining Agreement for the period 2011/2012 which was to come into effect from January this year.
The union official said the strike which is likely to spur massive industrial unrest and job cuts as more employers will likely do while seeking to survives its aftermath is the last option for staff in their efforts to battle it out with the newly branded KPLC whose vision of ” powering people for better lives” the union now appear bent to discredit.
The union is demanding immediate conclusion and full implementation of the delayed CBA. In the agreement negotiated last year, the union wants the lowest employee to earn sh.17500 up from13,000. They also want a 13% increment for all the cadres.
Apart from the CBA, the union is also demanding that KPLC absorbs as permanent a all the current staff working on temporary terms.
According to Okulo who is also the union’s secretary general for western Kenya region, only 3000 out of 12000 are KPLC permanent staff.
These are artisans such as the meter readers, disconnection clerks etc many of whom are not even covered medically by the company and whom he claimed die while working due to the risk surrounding their duties.
They also want KPLC to stop giving jobs to contractors arguing that contractors were engaging in shoddy jobs and were also to blame for the persistent power outages experienced in most parts of the country.
Okulo claimed that top managers were allegedly colluding with some of the unscrupulous contractors and that explains the many cases of theft of equipment and vandalism that is common at the firm.
”I have worked here for twenty years now. before the management introduced out sourcing of services and hiring of contractors to do jobs for KPLC, issues such us loss of transformers were not there . power back outs were minimal. Today, these people vandalize equipment, siphon transformer oils and do business with the company supplying materials the same materials they have stolen from us” he said.
Okulo who represents 600 casuals from the western Kenya region said the no amount of intimidation will cow them this time round into abandoning the strike and asked consumers countrywide to prepare by stocking candles.
He said the strike action was within the law and asked the police to keep off and resist attempts by the management to use them to intimidate and harass those who will take part in the industrial action.
In the last such strike, some union officials in the region were arrested by police in Kisumu who locked them up.
The country was plunged into total darkness in 1998 when there was severe drought that saw KPLC introduce power rationing that lasted several months resulting into loss of jobs and impacting negatively in the economy.
ENDS.