Workers at Dunlop Industrial Products in Howick have been on strike since Wednesday over a wage dispute, Numsa in KwaZulu-Natal said on Tuesday.
“The strike action has been triggered by stubbornness and big-headed arrogance by Dunlop ruling oligarchy to concede to workers demands for improved conditions of employment and sustainable livelihoods (all sic),” regional National Union of Metalworkers of SA secretary Mbuso Ngubane said in a statement.
Dunlop could not be immediately reached for comment.
The workers wanted a two-year agreement with a 10 percent wage increase in the first year and a nine percent increase in the second, Ngubane said. They also wanted a two-week pay bonus and two weeks' severance pay for each year they worked. Numsa believed the demands were reasonable and legitimate.
“We refuse to allow members to be subjected to starvation and poverty wages, amidst the triple crisis of poverty, unemployment and inequalities, mainly affecting working class and poor households.”
Ngubane said the union was urging Dunlop to return to the bargaining table to resolve the dispute. - Sapa