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Cape Town - The Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) warned on Tuesday, immediately before going into negotiations with the soft drink bottling arm of SAB, that if the employer's offer is not improved the strike will intensify to include international labour action.
The union hopes the bottler, Amalgamated Beverage Industries (ABI), will improve its current offer of 7.8% on wages, and will agree to restrict a 45-hour working week to weekdays so that hours worked on Saturday are paid as overtime.
It also wants to see regular jobs performed by permanently employed personnel, instead of being supplied by labour brokers, so that they can enjoy the same benefits as full-time SAB employees.
"If there is no agreement reached tomorrow, then the strike action will continue indefinitely," said Fawu general secretary Katishi Masemola. "If anything, other workers are expected to join the industrial action through sympathy strikes."
Fawu has already sent notices of a secondary strike to the beer division of SAB and the other three bottling companies of Coca-Cola products in South Africa.
"These seven-day notices lapse on January 6 and our members in those companies will be at liberty to embark on secondary strike and other protest activities like picketing, demonstrations and marches from January 7.
"We expect an additional 6 500 workers to participate in these secondary strikes and other protest actions."
Meanwhile, Fawu said it will oppose a court application by Coca-Cola Fortune (an unrelated South African bottler) to have the secondary strike declared unlawful and is taking legal advice on the matter.
In addition, from January 6 Coca Cola workers across the world, under the aegis of International Union of Food and Allied Workers Associations, have confirmed that they will start embarking on solidarity actions in support of striking ABI workers in South Africa.
These solidarity actions will continue up to a meeting of the Worldwide Coca-Cola Workers Alliance Steering Committee meeting, of which Masemola is a member, on February 4 and 5 in Geneva, Switzerland.
- I-Net Bridge