Thousands of municipal workers are expected to start with an indefinite nationwide strike on Tuesday to protest against the SA Local Government Association’s (Salga) final wage offer.
The national executive council of the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) said on Monday that it had rejected the final offer.
Samwu general secretary Roger Ronnie said more than 100 000 union members would join the organisation’s first nationwide strike in seven years.
The strike is expected to start in five provinces — Gauteng, Western Cape, Free State, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape — on Tuesday and would be extended to other provinces through the week.
He said services would be affected but Samwu had taken steps to ensure that essential services would be provided.
Among Samwu’s demands are a 10 percent wage increase or R300 whichever, is the greater, and an increase in the minimum wage from R1 900 to R2 200.
He said Samwu members were left with no choice but to strike after Salga announced that it would unilaterally implement an increase of its choice for the next three years. – Sapa