OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 9pm.
FILLING stations around South Africa are running dry with no end in sight to the strike by 47000 members of the Chemical Workers’ Industrial Union.
No negotiations took place on Wednesday, and no meetings are planned, CWIU president Welile Nolingo said, although he expects “some approaches or initiatives from the employers or the union”. The union will meet over the weekend to assess the situation and discuss the next step, Nolingo said.
Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Unions has called on all its members to “refuse to handle any goods to and from the petroleum, glass, plastics, rubber, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals and fast-moving consumer goods [industries]”, Cosatu deputy secretary-general Zwelinzama Vavi said on Wednesday.
The CWIU members have been striking since Monday in demand of a 10,5% salary increase, a 40-hour working week and paid sick leave.
The National Petroleum Employers Association said in a statement on Wednesday: “As of 11am there has been no indication that the CWIU has shown any willingness to resolve the dispute, despite repeated open door invitations to do so.”
CWIU spokesman Nelson Mthombeni said no invitations to talks had been received by his union on a national level.
The NPEA said stations that had run out of certain types of fuel could expect deliveries within 24 hours. It said there had been isolated cases of stations running out of certain fuel grades.