A South African union said it had launched a strike over wages at Chevron’s 100 000-barrel-per-day refinery in Cape Town and PetroSA’s 36 000 bpd Mossel Bay gas-to-liquid plant.
Welile Nolingo, secretary general of the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu), said on Tuesday the strike had started overnight and would continue until the union’s wage demands are met. He said union members at other refineries would join the strike if they too rejected a fresh wage offer presented by the petroleum industry on Friday.
”The response from these other refineries is expected today [Tuesday] in the morning. If the offer is not acceptable, the strike will continue and include other refineries,” said Nolingo.
Other refiners in Africa’s biggest economy include Sasol, the world’s biggest coal-to-fuels maker which runs the 107 000 bpd Natref refinery, and Engen, which operates the 180 000 bpd refinery in Durban.
The country’s largest refiner is Sapref, a 50-50 joint venture between Shell and BP, which produces 180 000 bpd.
Johann van Rheede, Sasol’s media manager, said the company had not been affected by the strike.
Ceppwawu said on Monday that more than 20 000 workers had gone on strike at companies in the pharmaceuticals, tissue, glass and cardboard industries.
Nolingo said the strike in these sectors was still going on.
The union said the strike had hit Africa’s top generic drugmaker Aspen; rival Adcock Ingram, a unit of Tiger Brands; the continent’s biggest packaging group, Nampak; United States-based hygiene group Kimberley-Clarke; and glass firm Consol among many other smaller companies.
The union last Thursday issued a 48-hour strike notice after employers in the various sectors failed to meet its demand for a 10% wage increase.
Employers were offering wage increases ranging from 6,5% to 8%, the union said. – Reuters