Farmworkers Strike

Permanent jobs are shrinking in the farming sector

Farmers have responded to state efforts to legislate labour relations by leaving the sector or mechanising and restructuring their workforces.

Union Csaawu is facing bankruptcy for supporting farm workers dismissed after historic strikes in 2012/ 13. This is why the union must be saved.

The Western Cape health department responds to the findings of a survey on access to healthcare among farmworkers during protests published last week.

Employment is stable after the minimum wage increase, but the figures are deceptive.

We are on the same side, we just manage different views, says Cosatu’s Ehrenreich of rival farmworkers’ union.

The Western Cape farmworkers’ strike has been called off, says the trade union federation’s provincial secretary general Tony Ehrenreich.

Complex and varied factors are at play behind the unrest in the Cape farmlands, writes Lynley Donnelly.

De Doorns residents have claimed they had nothing to do with the strike but have been brutalised, writes Benjamin Fogel.

A man died after he was hit by a rubber bullet during clashes between police and striking farmworkers in the Western Cape, said a police spokesperson.

Agriculture does not hold the solution to ending rural poverty, experts say, and improving lives will take more than a simple wage increase.

Western Cape police have fired rubber bullets at workers in De Doorns protesting for better wages, says a police spokesperson.

Farmworkers in the Western Cape will intensify their strike in the coming week, said Cosatu’s Tony Ehrenreich.

Labour protests across the Western Cape are due to intensify as various players in the saga, including ANC allies, plead for government intervention.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant must act decisively to stop violent farmworker strikes in the Western Cape, said the provincial government.