ABI won't up soft drink offer

Johannesburg - Amalgamated Beverage Industries (ABI) is not budging on its wage offer to striking employees, despite a compromise from the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) which represents the soft drink bottler's workers.

Fawu general secretary Katishi Masemola told Fin24.com on Thursday that the union has proposed a settlement to ABI management. Among other things, he said, the union has offered to revise its 9.5% "actual salary" increase demand and defer the demand for the banning of labour brokers in the firm to a separate process, once the salary dispute has been resolved.

Said Masemola: "We have made a proposal for a settlement. We said we are willing to revise the 9.5% demand. We've also decided to defer the issue of labour brokering to a process outside the current salary dispute. And that's actually a huge compromise."

He would, however, not say how much the union would accept for a settlement. "The principle is that workers cannot go on strike and return empty-handed. The ABI management must understand that," he said.

While the union was willing to compromise, Masemola stressed that Fawu would continue its campaign against the use of labour brokers.

However, ABI - a soft drink division of brewery group SABMiller - is sticking to its 7.8% "actual salary" increase, or 8.3% total package increase, according to a company spokesperson.

The ABI strike has been dragging on for over a month now and has been marked by incidents of violence, with contradictions on the number of employees on strike. ABI said that less than a third of 3 800 employees are on strike, while Fawu maintained more than 2 000 are involved in the industrial action.

ABI said its contingency plans have ensured that production continues to run smoothly. But Masemola disputed that, saying ABI has been sending out group SMSs to individual employees, pleading with them to return to work as contingency staff were struggling to cope.

- Fin24.com