Minister Basile Atangana Kouna held preliminary talks with the striking workers on Wednesday.

Striking workers of the national water distribution company, La Camerounaise des Eaux, CDE, have promised to rally their representatives from all regions for a crisis meeting with the Minister of Energy and Water Resources scheduled for this day, Thursday May 9, 2012 at 9 am. It will hold at the CDE Centre Regional Office situated in the Camp Yeyap neighbourhood of Yaounde.

The decision was communicated to the Water Resources Minister, Basile Atangana Kouna, yesterday, Wednesday May 9, 2012, during a preliminary meeting that he held in Yaounde with the aggrieved workers at the CDE Regional Office.

Basile Atangana Kouna who was accompanied by the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO for Mfoundi Division, Jean Claude Tsila and armed security officers, held the meeting with the workers in open air. He told them to keep the main gate open, ensure the provision of minimum services and resume work. He expressed regret that the workers had stopped the flow of water to the Presidency yesterday.

While refuting any malicious intention or act on their part concerning the allegation, the workers’ spokespersons told the Minister that water could have failed to reach the Presidency due to an electrical fault that occurred in the night of Tuesday May 8 at the Akomnyada Water Treatment Station on the outskirts of Yaounde. “Our staff worked all night to solve the problem that lasted for more than six hours,” said Staff Representative Jean Marc Ekamena, in an attempt to prove that minimum service was ensured. The Minister was also told that the sit-in strike was a nationwide initiative involving all CDE workers. Hence, the presence of all staff representatives was required for any credible crisis meeting to hold.

CDE workers resumed their sit-in strike last Monday May 7, 2012 to compel their Moroccan management to yield to grievances dating from the takeover of the former national water distribution company, SNEC, on May 2, 2008 after it was privatised. Featuring among the grievances handed to Minister Basile Atangana Fouda yesterday is the payment of ex-SNEC’s social debt that was estimated at over FCFA 823 million as at September 2010. In the same vein, they demanded the payment of CDE’s social debt estimated at over FCFA 51 million as at December 31, 2011.

Besides, the workers asked for the full implementation by management of the collective agreements as well as provide appropriate working clothes, better working conditions, stamped payslips, labour medals, staff canteens, advancements and reclassifications, amongst others. After yesterday’s preliminary talks, the striking workers expect that today’s meeting will break the deadlock before the strike takes another dimension.