TUESDAY, 5.00PM
THE Congress of SA Trade Unions on Tuesday continued its series of one-day regional strikes in support of its demands for changes to the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill with a stayaway in KwaZulu-Natal.
Businesses in the province reported an average 60% stayaway. The main action of the day was a march by about 3 000 Cosatu members to the Durban City Hall, where the marchers handed a memorandum to the Durban Chamber of Commerce.
More industrial action is planned for the Northern Cape, Free State and Western Cape on Wednesday, and in Gauteng, Northern Province and North-West on Thursday.
MONDAY, 5.00PM
WIDESPREAD stayaways were reported in the Eastern Cape on Monday as thousands of workers heeded a call to strike for a day in the region in support of Cosatu’s demands for changes to the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill.
About 90% of Cosatu-affiliated workers in the Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage areas stayed away from work, according to Kevin Wakeford, chief executive of the Port Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce. Between 10% and 30% of workers in the region are not affilitated to Cosatu.
Ninety percent of workers at the Volkswagen plant and 70% of workers at the Delta Motors plant were on strike, and engineering firms and tyre production plants were not operating, Wakeford said.
Most clothing industry business were also shut, although on average 15% of staff turned up for work. Many buses and taxis did not operate.
The East London based Border-Kei Chamber of Commerce also reported widespread support of the strike. One-hundred-percent stayaways were reported by four of the largest employers in the region, while five other factories reported absenteeism of between 50% and 70%.
The effect of the strike in Jeffery’s Bay and Queenstown was described as minimal by local businessmen. In Grahamstown, several hundred workers gathered in Church Square, where they presented a petition to the local chamber of commerce.