There is also a threat by the union of a full-blown national strike if the company refuses to accede to the workers‘ demands.
The action follows the failure by management to make an acceptable offer in negotiations on Monday, 20 July, to resolve the current wage dispute with the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu).
Union regional spokesman Simphiwe Valela said the national strike would kick off on Friday with mass protest marches in various parts of the country, except in Port Elizabeth.
Workers at three Game stores and Makro would stay away from work for a one-day industrial action, Valela said. Saccawu members are to march to these stores in East London.
Massmart Holdings corporate affairs executive Brian Leroni said Makro had been notified of the protest action.
Meanwhile, negotiations to end the nationwide strike by chemical, paper and pharmaceutical workers, which enters its fourth day on Thursday, reached a deadlock on Wednesday after the unions rejected a 9,5% wage increase offer by employers.
Unions leading the strike, the Chemical, Energy, Printing, Paper, Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) and the General Industrial Workers Union of SA, threatened to close down factories countrywide.
On Wednesday, strikers toyi-toyed outside factories owned by paper producer Sappi, consumer products company Tiger Brands and the Sasol Nitro arm of petrochemicals giant Sasol.
Thousands of Ceppwawu members in the Eastern Cape are still on strike and production at companies like Aspen, Bodene, Algorax, Umico, and Plascon is said to have been severely affected.
Source: The Herald
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