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Case Study: Security Services Employers Association

Public Relations/public affairs case study

The Security Services Employers Association engaged PURE Communications in February 2009 to handle the publicity around their negotiations with the security industry unions led by Satawu. Our brief was to ambush the unions at the outset of negotiations, then shape the negotiations to a successful conclusion.

Wage negotiations in the sector in 2006 turned violent, leading to a months-long disruption of security services and the intimidation and killing of a number of nonstriking security guards. Our mission was to help avoid this outcome.

And hence we put out the first salvo, arranging an interview the previous Friday evening between the Business Day journalist and our spokesperson. The article appeared on page 2 of the Business Day on the Monday morning that the negotiations commenced.

Security industry, guards set for heated encounter:
http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=60109

Then the negotiations carried on for three days, the first day of which we arranged news bulletins at the major news organisations like 702, SABC TV, SABC Radio, KayaFM, etc. repeating the union’s extraordinary demands. The unions were on the back foot and never got traction in the media or public support.

After this first round of negotiations, we wrote an opinion piece effectively explaining the positions of the parties and even taking some of the blame for the industry’s poor image. This was the leading Op/Ed piece on Business Day’s page 15.

The negotiations carried on, but the unions didn’t have the will to fight and signed a 3-year contract in late April, the week after national elections. This was during a period in which several Cosatu-led strikes shook up several industries, often in cases where the employers’ offer was higher than the security industry settlement. Here is the article that appeared throughout the Independent Newspapers stable – The Star, Pretoria News, Cape Argus, etc.

No repeat of 2006 security guards' strikehttp://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20090430172517710C766164