BL Premium reports that unions have vowed to “cripple” operations at dairy producer Clover ahead of the busy festive season after a deadlock with management over above-inflation wage increases, retrenchments, and other conditions of employment.
The General Industries Workers Union of SA (Giwusa) and the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) — both affiliates of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) — downed tools last Monday and embarked on an indefinite strike for a wage increase of 10%. The company initially proposed a wage increase freeze but subsequently revised its offer to 4.5%, which the unions have rejected. The two unions apparently represent about 5,000 workers at Clover, which was delisted from the JSE after a takeover in 2019 by the Milco consortium, led by Israeli manufacturer and distributor of beverages Central Bottling Company (CBC). According to Giwusa president Mametlwe Sebei, one of the conditions competition authorities had imposed on the takeover by Milco was that there “must be no retrenchments at Clover until October 2022”. “Now they are going against that condition and are retrenching over 1,400 workers nationally. They are also planning on closing some of their factories as well,” he claimed. Fawu’s Mayoyo Mngomezulu said that employees had been given a choice to either agree to a 20% wage cut or be retrenched. “They were given a deadline of November 26. The non-unionised workers signed the ultimatum and went back to work. But the union members refused and elected to go on strike. We are saying these retrenchments are illegal and we are going to fight them through the court process. In the meantime, the strike continues. It’s indefinite, actually,” he stated. Sebei said workers were also unhappy that the company wanted to make working on public holidays compulsory; introduce a six-day working week (from five days), and implement a one driver, one assistant policy, instead of two assistants at present.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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