 Food & Allied Workers Union (F.A.W.U.) Vuyisile Mini Centre, Cnr NY1 and NY110, Guguletu, 7750 - PO Box 1234 Woodstock, 7915 Tel (021) 637 9040, Fax (021) 637 9164 [email protected] Rolling Mass Action Press Statement on Striking
ABI Workers Pledging Solidarity with and Joining the Picketing of the
Striking
Farm Workers at Plantation Farm at 12h00 before Gathering at the CCMA
on the 5th
January at 15h00 05th January 2010 06h10 Striking members of the Food and Allied Workers’ Union [FAWU] at ABI Coke will be proceeding to Rondebult, East Rand to pledge solidarity with and joining the picketing of striking farm workers at Plantation Farm (directions is N3 to Durban from Johannesburg you off-ramp at Barry Marais/Vosloo then turn left at the traffic lights. Proceed for about 600 meters and turn right at the first four-way stop. After three hundred meters or so, turn left at the first short left which is a road to Elsburg road. Look for picketing workers on the right opposite the store) at 12h00 today on Tuesday) before proceeding to the CCMA in down-town Johannesburg (Harrison street corner main street) for a report-back at 15h00. This will follow the meeting between the union and ABI management under s66 (of the LRA) facilitation by the CCMA to see if both parties will be able to reach an agreement. We hope that management will improve its current offer of 7.8% on wage increment, to make an unconditional offer of restricting 45-hr working week to within week-days of Monday and Friday such that hours worked on Saturday are paid on an overtime basis, and to agree that labour broker practice must end such that regular jobs are performed by permanently employed personnel and crew members on delivery trucks sold to drivers are paid living wages, work under adequate working conditions and enjoy benefits that SAB Ltd or ABI Coke workers enjoy. If there is no agreement reached tomorrow, then the strike action will continue indefinitely. If anything, other workers are expected to join the industrial action through sympathy strikes. In any case, notices of secondary strike have been sent to the beer division of SAB Ltd and to the other three bottling companies of coca cola products in South Africa (i.e Coca Cola Fortune, Coca Cola Canners and Coca Cola Shanduka). These seven-day notices lapse on the 06th January and our members in those companies will be at liberty to embark on secondary strike and other protest activities like picketing, demonstrations and marches from the 07th January 2010. We expect additional 6 500 workers to participate in these secondary strikes and other protest actions. Meanwhile, the union will oppose court application by Coca Cola Fortune to have the secondary strike declared unlawful and to this effect we are taking legal advice from our lawyers. In addition, from the 06th of January, Coca Cola workers across the world, under the ambit of International Union of Food and Allied Workers Associations (IUF), have confirmed that they will start embarking on solidarity actions from the 06th January in support of striking ABI Coke workers in South Africa. This solidarity actions will continue leading up to a meeting of the World-wide Coca Cola Workers Alliance Steering Committee meeting, of which the General Secretary of FAWU is a member, on the 04th and 5th February 2010 in Geneva Switzerland. Please call General Secretary Katishi Masemola on 082 467 2509 for more information. Katishi Masemola FAWU General Secretary -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . |
