NUM W Cape to march to bargaining council

Joahnnesburg - Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in the Western Cape will march to the offices of the Building Industry Bargaining Council (BIBC) on Wednesday.

"The march will start from Robert Sobukwe road to the BIBC offices via Voortrekker Road where a memorandum will be handed over by the NUM leadership to the BIBC authorities," said NUM regional spokesperson Benson Ngqentsu in a statement.

The workers would be addressed by leaders of the Cosatu, the ANC, SA Communist Party and NUM.

Construction workers downed tools on Monday demanding a 13% wage increase.

The SA Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec) - which is representing employers - tabled a 7.5% offer that was rejected.

"Forty nine percent of ...employees did not turn up for work... [on Monday] and the provinces most affected by the strike include KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and Eastern Cape," Safcec spokeswoman Annemie Cowley said in a statement.

NUM national spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka had predicted that about 90 000 union members would not report for work.