Workers at South Africa’s petrol stations and car dealerships have postponed a strike for higher wages due to start on Monday to allow for more talks with employers, a spokesman for the country’s leading manufacturing union said.
The mover offers a bit of relief for Africa’s largest economy where workers in the car manufacturing sector have been on strike for two weeks and unionised gold miners are threatening to go on strike this week.
Castro Ngobese, spokesman for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), said the union was expected to meet petrol station operators and motor industry retailers on Wednesday and Thursday.
“If nothing comes out of the talks, we will file for a strike notice. Then we will begin with our strike on the 9th of September,” Ngobese told media.
Citing escalating living and transport costs, NUMSA said last week its 72,000 members working in petrol stations, automotive retail shops and car dealerships would strike “in demand of a living wage and improved conditions”.
The rand last month tumbled to four-year lows due to the labour unrest that has swept Africa’s largest economy and raised worries of slower growth.
Striking car workers rejected a double-digit wage increase offer last Thursday and said they would intensify a strike that has crippled production of a major export. The auto industry strike was costing the economy an estimated $60 million a day.
South African gold miners plan to strike for higher pay from Tuesday, inflicting more damage on an industry that has produced a third of the bullion ever pulled from the earth but is now in rapid decline.
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