Solidarity reports that its members showed up for work at ArcelorMittal in Vanderbijlpark on Thursday in protest against the lockdown regulations that have prevented hundreds of thousands of people from working.  

This came after the trade union asked thousands of workers across the country to put pressure on the government so that all companies that could work healthily could open.  “The level of job losses and the crisis developing as a result of people who only receive a portion of their salaries are of such a magnitude that Solidarity members across South Africa said they will start reporting for work at their workplaces,” Solidarity’s CE Dr Dirk Hermann indicated.  The workers turned up at the steel plant with protective masks, hand sanitisers and comprehensive suggestions for undertaking work in a healthy way.  According to Hermann, decisions taken at central level have resulted in companies being forced to close, depriving them of the opportunity to put their own creative plans in place to work without compromising their health.  “We are not making a choice between health and work; we are opting for working in a healthy way,” Hermann pointed out.

• Read Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Polity

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