Ethiopian Review

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s biggest union said today 50,000 construction workers would launch a strike over pay from next Wednesday, halting work across the economy including on stadiums for the 2010 soccer World Cup.

A prolonged strike could cause the partial shut down of an economy in recession and could scare foreign investors.

Several sectors in Africa’s biggest economy are holding wage negotiations, some of which cover a two-year period, and unions are demanding above-inflation increases.

Employers have balked at the demands, with consumer inflation at 8 per cent, citing the global economic downturn.

As well as World Cup infrastructure, the construction strike could halt work on the mass transit Gautrain high-speed rail project, power stations, an airport, a refinery, a coal terminal, hospitals, highways and mining projects.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which also represents construction workers, said in a statement it had served the construction sector’s employer body with a notice to go on strike after prolonged wage talks collapsed last Friday.

“A strike action is set to begin on July 8,” Mr Lesiba Seshoka, the NUM’s spokesman said.

Power stations

“Its not just the World Cup stadia that will be affected, we are talking about power stations, hospitals, roads and the like. It will last until they (the employers) come to their senses and offer a 13 per cent wage increase for one year.”

The NUM said it had lowered its wage demand to 13 per cent for a one year agreement whilst employers had offered a 10 per cent increment for the first year.

The employers’ organisation was not available to comment.

Over the past two weeks, South Africa has staged the Confederations Cup, a test event for the World Cup, which whetted the appetite for the main event, but a lot of work was still pending, including completing building works on stadiums.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter gave organisers of the Confederations Cup a mark of 7.5 points out of 10 on Monday.

There was no immediate comment from the government on the possibility of a strike, but earlier today it said the success of the tournament had put to rest all doubts that South Africa would deliver a successful 2010 Fifa World Cup.

In a statement, it said the stadiums used for the Confederations Cup had met all the requirements, while five others would be completed soon.

- Reuters