Tebogo Msimanga |
General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) and Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) will have a technical briefing meeting with the office of the Minister of trade, industry and competition, Ebrahim Patel, on Friday to demand that he nationalise Clover for Christmas.
About 5000 workers at Clover have been on strike for one month, since 22 November after Clover announced wage cuts for all workers, that workers would work longer hours and do more manual work within the long hours and insisted that they would shut down Clover factories in Lichtenburg, Heilbron and Frankfort, which will leave hundreds of workers in these small towns jobless and unable to find any other work.
GIWUSA president Mametlwe Sebei said Clover has refused to negotiate in good faith with the unions, “first breaching the Labour Relations Act by discriminating against workers who participated in the protected strike by cancelling their December bonuses, and then by inventing a new “continuity” allowance to reward non-strikers.”
Clover was purchased in 2019 by Milco SA, which is owned by the Israeli Central Bottling Company. “It is the betrayal of the oppressed masses of Palestine for the ‘pro-Palestine’ ANC government to allow an over hundred years old, and biggest South African dairy products company which has always employed thousands of workers to be downgraded into a vessel purely focussed on making a profit for its Israeli owners, who are also oppressing Palestinians at the same time.”
Sebei added that the unions demand that the government nationalise Clover and keep the Clover factories in small towns open and keep the supply of South African dairy going without interruption.
