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Saftu’s Vavi vows to “scale up the fight” against Clover

Details

vavi1GroundUp reports that unions supporting striking workers of dairy producer Clover say the strike will continue and action against the company will be intensified.

During recent negotiations, the unions and Clover management again failed to reach an agreement. Workers are demanding that Clover stop plans for further retrenchments, factory closures and salary cuts. They are also demanding that the company reinstate all dismissed workers. They moreover want the company to be independent of the Israeli company Central Bottling Company (CBC), which owns Clover through the Milco SA consortium. Representatives of Clover met with leaders from the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (FAWU), the General Industries Workers’ Unions of SA (GIWUSA) and the SA Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) on Friday to try and end the strike, which started in November 2021. The meeting, which the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) also attended, was hosted by officials from the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. On Tuesday, striking workers and supporting union members met under the banner of the ‘Clover Strike War Council’. SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said they would “scale up the fight” and mobilise more support for striking workers. He said that during the meeting last Friday, Clover was “telling us the same things they said in the previous meeting. They are going ahead with the 20% cut of the wages of workers, that we must accept that [factories in] Lichtenburg and Frankfort are gone and not going to reopen. They want to make life impossible to live and work under in the Clover company”. Clover told GroundUp that it had explored “all possible avenues” to minimise retrenchments but trading conditions and poor economic growth have made things difficult.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Masego Mafata at GroundUp


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