Employers in the metals and engineering industries have asked police to redouble efforts to contain vandalism and intimidation as the strike by South Africa’s largest trade union goes into its fourth day.
Employers have been locking in their workers to protect them from enforcers from the 220 000-strong National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa.
Strikers east of Johannesburg have broken into offices of engineering companies and poured acid on their computers.
They also been marching on metal-working companies threatening any workers not supporting their strike for a 12 percent pay hike.
In the eastern province of Limpopo, police had to fire rubber bullets on workers picketing the Medupi power station being built to meet South Africa electricity generating shortfall
Talks were scheduled to resume last night (Wednesday) between workers and employers.
Steel and engineering workers say they’re either being forced to flee workplaces besieged by strikers or being held against their will by bosses on the pretext of protecting them.
The union deplores the employers call for police protection against striker’s intimidation, saying it seeks to undermine their efforts to get a living wage in a country still torn by world-beating inequality 20 years after the ANC came to power/