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GroundUp reports that according to striking workers, private security guards fired rubber bullets and teargas at them outside the Clover plant in Clayville, Ekurhuleni on Tuesday.
Workers have been picketing outside the dairy producer’s factories and plants as part of a strike since November last year. They are demanding that the company stop plans for further retrenchments and reinstate all workers. Marriam Mamabolo, a General Workers Industrial Union of SA (GIWUSA) shop steward, said she was preparing to hand out food parcels to about 300 workers when she heard gunshots. "We were outside the plant, dividing workers into groups to give them food parcels, when they started firing shots and teargas. People started to run away but some of us couldn’t so we choked on the fumes from the teargas," she stated. According to Mamabolo, some workers were injured. In a statement released by GIWUSA on Wednesday, the union claimed that Clover had "staged this shooting" to support the company’s urgent application to interdict the strike. The application will be heard at the Labour Court on Friday, according to GIWUSA national organiser Charles Phahla. Clover said no instruction had been given to security guards to shoot at the workers. "Evidence shows that striking workers threw rocks at security guards who took action to defend themselves," said Clover’s Steven Velthuysen.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Masego Mafata at GroundUp
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page