Strike talks on as fuel shortages bite

Johannesburg - Employers in South Africa's oil industry will meet with unions on Monday, in a bid to end a week-long strike that has left hundreds of fuel pumps dry and may cost the economy billions of rand in lost output.

Tens of thousands of workers in the fuel sector began walking off the job on Monday, delaying deliveries and sparking panic buying at service stations in Gauteng.

The industrial action intensified on Monday after a small but influential union joined other labour groups already on strike.

Fuel industry employers include BP, Royal Dutch Shell, petrochemicals group Sasol [JSE:SOL], state-owned energy group PetroSA, Chevron and Total.

Sasol said the strike was impacting production at its Secunda synthetic fuels plant.

“In the interest of safety, sections of the east side of the Sasol Secunda plant are being run at lower production rates than normal,” Sasol said.

“These reduced production rates will impact on some fuel and chemical production. Sasol is doing everything in its power to continue to supply products to its customers using the available resources.”

The company added that it remained optimistic that the parties will do everything possible to resolve the impasse.

The Fuel Retailers Association said it was still collecting information on how many service stations in Gauteng had run dry by Monday morning.

Economists said the fuel strike may cost South Africa billions of rand and impact its image as an investment destination due to frequent walk-outs in labour-intensive sectors such as mining, fuel and steel production.

The government called for a speedy resolution to the fuel strike to avoid a crisis which could spread to all sectors of the economy.

Many deliveries were hampered by intimidation from striking workers at depots, producers said.

Unions and employers are locked in their mid-year bargaining session known as "strike season", with many labour groups seeking wage increases that far exceed inflation.

Companies from other sectors affected by strikes include paper makers Mondi [JSE:MND] and Sappi [JSE:SAP].