Bheki Mpofu
7 July 2009
Johannesburg — WORK at all 2010 Soccer World Cup construction projects will grind to a halt tomorrow after unions yesterday rejected a revised pay offer and opted to strike in support of a higher demand.
The latest offer of 10,4% by the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec), was turned down after the collapse of eleventh-hour talks to avert the strike by 70000 workers.
This came after the Labour Court ruled against Safcec's application to avert the strike by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Building Construction and Allied Workers' Union.
The unions are demanding a 13% increase.
This will be the biggest industrial action to hit the local construction sector, and could affect the completion deadline of various World Cup projects, especially the five remaining stadiums.
Construction at all Gautrain sites will be affected, and so will Soccer City in Johannesburg; Moses Mabhida Stadium and the King Shaka Airport in Durban; Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane; and Green Point Stadium in Cape Town.
The Fifa local organising committee said last week it was concerned that the strike would affect its undertaking to have all stadiums completed by the December deadline, when they are to be handed over to Fifa.
The NUM said 70000 members of both unions would down tools, and they were no longer interested in negotiations unless their demands were met.
"The talks have completely collapsed after employers made a 10,4% revised offer, which we have rejected. The door for any further talks has now been shut, and the strike will definitely go ahead as planned," said NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka.
"Employers must expect no mercy from us. They must deliver 13% or we will strike until 2011. We have now got them (employers) where we wanted them, and they must now move very quickly and give us our 3% (more)," he said.
Safcec spokesman Joe Campanella said the employer body was disappointed by the unions' rejection, but said its members had contingency plans to mitigate the effects of the strike.
"We are disappointed by the unions' rejection of our latest offer of 10,4%, which is above inflation. We don't believe that their demands are reasonable," he said.
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