Fawu pickets at SAB offices

Johannesburg - The Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) intensified its national strike action at the SA Breweries [JSE:SAB] beer division with a picket outside its Randburg offices on Tuesday, the union said.

"About 450 workers gathered and made their mark and the strike action went very well this afternoon," said general secretary Katishi Masemola.

"Fawu leadership wrote a letter to SAB management on Tuesday morning to request a meeting for tomorrow [Wednesday]. We will know by the end of business if our request was successful."

The picket followed another failure to reach an agreement on wages, working conditions and benefits between Fawu and SAB management on Thursday and Friday.

Masemola said that in a mass meeting held on Monday, workers reiterated their demands and insisted that the strike continue.

Fawu members want a nine percent salary increase across the board and equal participation in the board of trustees of the provident fund and medical scheme through people they deployed.

Masemola said workers across the country refused to go back to work until an agreement was reached.

"We plea to SAB management to come back to the table because we must resolve this issue," he said.

The strike started two weeks ago.