South Africa: Footwear strike for a living wage enters second week17 July, 2018Thousands of workers in the footwear sector are on strike for a second week demanding a wage increase of 9.5 per cent while the employers are offering 6.25 per cent.
South Africa: Union demands justice for woman worker murdered at electricity sub-station28 June, 2018In May last year, power utility Eskom worker, 29-year-old Thembisile Yende, was murdered whilst at work at an electricity sub-station in Ekurhuleni near Johannesburg. On 28 June, the court said that the director of public prosecutions has provisionally withdrawn the charges against her alleged killer, David Ngwenya, a technician at Eskom.
South Africa: Unions meet to build an Africa-Europe network across the Lear supply chain22 June, 2018IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in Germany and South Africa working for Lear Corporation are meeting in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, from 20–22 June to discuss ways to collaborate on improving conditions for workers in Africa and Europe.
South African unions reject Eskom’s zero-increase in wages15 June, 2018Thousands of workers picketed outside Eskom offices in Johannesburg on 14 June to demand a 15 per cent wage increase and reject a no-increase announcement by state-owned energy company Eskom, who is arguing that it is broke.
South Africa: Union calls for improved health and safety after four mineworkers are killed at Sibanye Stillwater gold mine13 June, 2018The deaths at Sibanye Stillwater operations in 2018 go beyond previous years with 11 killed in 2016, and nine in 2017. This year the death toll is already at 18 showing that the company’s operations are increasingly becoming death-traps for mineworkers.
South Africa: Union condemns retrenchment of 1,722 mineworkers at Evander gold mine16 May, 2018Pan African Resources’ Evander gold mine in Barberton, Mpumalanga Province, has given notice to retrench 95 per cent of its workers – 1722 workers out of 1812 – by the end of May. IndustriALL affiliate the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is asking that the Department of Mineral Resources intervene to save the jobs, even if it means that the government revokes the mining licence.
South Africa: Four dead as mine claims more lives4 May, 2018Four workers have died and three are trapped underground as rescue efforts continue at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Masakhane Shaft in Westonaria, Johannesburg, which has been closed. This follows seismic incident causing a fall ground on 3 May that saw 13 mineworkers trapped underground. Six have since been rescued and are recovering in hospital.
South Africa: Zara accused of design theft29 April, 2018The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU), an affiliate of the IndustriALL Global Union, has condemned Zara’s fashion piracy after it emerged that the Spanish-based global brand produced designs with a strong similarity to a local designer’s collection.
South Africa: Union protests Glencore malpractices26 April, 2018Hundreds of workers from IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), marched to Glencore's office in Johannesburg on 25 April, protesting against the mining giant’s workers’ and human rights abuses.
South African unions pay tribute to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela3 April, 2018“When you strike a woman, you strike a rock” is a popular slogan from the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and a call to action on women’s rights in the country. On April 2 one of the rocks of that struggle fell when Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died aged 81.
