Latest news with #DirkHermann
IOL News
2 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Solidarity CEO urges FlySafair to prioritise pilots' wellbeing in strike standoff
Solidarity's CEO Dr Dirk Hermann urges FlySafair to prioritise people over profits, warning that pilot frustration, driven by poor work-life balance and mistrust, could ground the airline's future in a globally competitive market. Image: Supplied Solidarity union Chief Executive Officer Dr Dirk Hermann has called on FlySafair CEO Elmar Conradie to intervene directly in the airline's ongoing pilot strike, warning that the dispute has exposed a deep crisis of trust between the airline and its highly skilled workforce. In an open letter released on Sunday, July, 27, 2025, Hermann addressed Conradie directly, noting that while neither of them is personally involved in the negotiations, the matter has reached a critical point that requires leadership. 'This open letter deliberately does not form part of the negotiations but is a note between the two of us,' he wrote. Hermann highlighted that more than 90% of Solidarity's pilot members voted to continue the strike even after a new offer from FlySafair, an unprecedented move for a professional group that rarely resorts to industrial action. 'Solidarity members only go on strike as a matter of the highest exception... This case is, however, such a highly exceptional one,' he said. He pointed to a 'complete breakdown of trust' between the airline and its pilots and describes their levels of disillusionment as 'toxic.' Drawing on his academic expertise, Hermann added: 'I did my PhD in Labour Relations, and my topic was alienation. I can tell you that the alienation levels of your pilots are toxic.' A core concern is not just remuneration, but the implementation of a new roster system that significantly impacts work-life balance. Pilots, according to Hermann, are not primarily striking over money but over the loss of meaningful, balanced working conditions. ' They are asking for one weekend off a month,' he explains. 'They are looking for balanced jobs and FlySafair has taken that away from them.' Hermann criticised FlySafair's handling of the strike, especially the decision to respond to a one-day action with a full week-long lockout, now extended. 'They wanted to show what is going on in their hearts, but then they got hit in the pocket. They have been threatened and bullied,' he said. He warned that the airline risks an exodus of pilots to international carriers. While FlySafair achieved record profits in 2024 and reportedly paid out R90 million in shares to executives and R1.31 billion to overseas shareholders, many pilots' salaries remain below pre-COVID levels. Hermann argues that the airline's offer has not kept pace with local and global industry standards, especially given the global shortage of pilots. ' There is a pilot shortage, and it is going to get even worse. This shortage is going to rise above inflation, and so too will their salaries. It is a market reality,' he writes. 'My call to you is to intervene in the negotiations. Don't look at the sums, but at the people. Be internationally competitive with a total remuneration package that surpasses salary. If you don't, it will translate into sums, sums you will not like.' 'You must now land this plane that is on strike. Give the pilots what they are asking for and what is good for them, the company and the country,'' he said. Get your news on the go, click here to join the IOL News WhatsApp channel. IOL News
Eyewitness News
12-06-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
Job creation has been minimal in SA since democracy, claims Solidarity
JOHANNESBURG - Minority lobby group, Solidarity, claims that job creation since 1994 has been minimal, largely due to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) policies. Solidarity, in collaboration with the Free Market Foundation (FMF), has released a new study outlining the costs associated with BBBEE compliance. Their findings indicate that these policies have contributed to rising unemployment and have hindered significant economic growth since 1994. Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann argues that a complete overhaul of the BBBEE policy would be more beneficial for the country. 'Black Economic Empowerment does not address inequality. It increases as a result of the policy. The paradox is that inequality increases particularly in the black community as a result of a small group of elites, who are being radically enriched.' Speaking to 702 , prominent businessman Saki Macozoma said BBBEE remains necessary for transformation. 'Empowering people who are previously disadvantaged is the right kind of thing. It may be that the terminology of Black Economic Empowerment is the one that creates the emotion. The fact of the matter is that we need to have the redress, and we have not done it to the extent that we should have.' ALSO READ:
Los Angeles Times
08-02-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Trump says some white South Africans are oppressed, could be resettled in U.S. They say no thanks
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Groups representing some of South Africa's white minority have responded to a plan by President Trump to offer them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, but no thanks. The plan was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and financial assistance to South Africa as punishment for what the Trump administration said were 'rights violations' by the government against some of its white citizens. The Trump administration accused the South African government of allowing violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that enables it to 'seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural property without compensation.' The South African government has denied there are any concerted attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump's description of the new land law is full of misinformation and distortions. Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, but also French and German colonial settlers who first arrived in South Africa more than 300 years ago. They speak Afrikaans, a language derived from Dutch that developed in South Africa, and are distinct from other white South Africans who come from British or other backgrounds. Together, white people make up around 7% of South Africa's population of 62 million. On Saturday, two of the most prominent groups representing Afrikaners said they would not be taking up Trump's offer of resettlement in the U.S. 'Our members work here, and want to stay here, and they are going to stay here,' said Dirk Hermann, chief executive of the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity, which says it represents about 2 million people. 'We are committed to build a future here. We are not going anywhere.' At the same news conference, Kallie Kriel, the CEO of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, said: 'We have to state categorically: We don't want to move elsewhere.' Trump's move to sanction South Africa, a key U.S. trading partner in Africa, came after he and his South African-born advisor Elon Musk have accused its leaders of having an anti-white stance. But the portrayal of Afrikaners as a downtrodden group that needed to be saved would surprise most South Africans. 'It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged,' South Africa's Foreign Ministry said. It also criticized the Trump administration's own policies, saying the focus on Afrikaners came 'while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.' There was 'a campaign of misinformation and propaganda' aimed at South Africa, the ministry said. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesperson said, 'South Africa is a constitutional democracy. We value all South Africans, Black and white. The assertion that Afrikaners face arbitrary deprivation and, therefore, need to flee the country of their birth is an assertion devoid of all truth.' White people in South Africa still generally have a much better standard of living than Black people more than 30 years after the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. Despite being a small minority, white people own around 70% of South Africa's private farmland. A study in 2021 by the South Africa Human Rights Commission said 1% of white people were living in poverty compared with 64% of Black people. Sithabile Ngidi, a market trader in Johannesburg, said she hadn't seen white people being mistreated in South Africa. 'He [Trump] should have actually come from America to South Africa to try and see what was happening for himself and not just take the word of an Elon Musk, who hasn't lived in this country for the longest of time, who doesn't even relate to South Africans,' Ngidi said. But Trump's action against South Africa has given international attention to a sentiment among some white South Africans that they are being discriminated against as a form of payback for apartheid. The leaders of the racist apartheid government were Afrikaners. Solidarity, AfriForum and others oppose the new land expropriation law, saying it will target land owned by white people who have worked to develop that land for years. They also oppose a new language law that seeks to limit Afrikaans language in schools and they say South Africa's business policies to promote the interests of Black citizens are racist. 'This government is allowing a certain section of the population to be targeted,' said AfriForum's Kriel, who thanked Trump for raising the case of Afrikaners. But Kriel said Afrikaners were committed to South Africa. The South African government says the laws that have been criticized are aimed at the difficult task of redressing the wrongs of colonialism and then nearly half a century of apartheid, when Blacks were stripped of their land and almost all their rights. Imray writes for the Associated Press. AP journalist Sebabatso Mosamo in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
