South African Breweries (SAB) is making contingency plans to counter threatened strike action at its beer plants, the company said on Friday.
Some branches of SABMiller’s beer plants in South Africa face a possible shutdown on Monday due to a sympathy strike linked to domestic soft drink unit ABI, the biggest producer and distributor of Coca-Cola brands in the region.
“The management teams of both SAB and ABI have put in place strong contingency plans to ensure the least amount of disruption to both businesses,” ABI said in a statement, adding all SAB customer orders would be met.
About 940 workers at ABI, which employs 3 766 people, launched the strike on December 10, demanding a 9,5% wage hike after rejecting the company’s 8,3% offer.
The month-long strike, which ABI said had limited impact on operations, has been accompanied by violence with about 100 people arrested.
Despite calls for a sympathy strike by the Fawu trade union, ABI said workers at SAB had been reporting for duty since Wednesday. – Reuters