Another Strike In South Africa; 4,000 Hotel Workers To Strike

Written by Ann Brown

Nov 02, 2013

More than 4,000 staffers of leading South African hotel and gaming group Sun International will go on strike to demand higher pay, according to trade union federation Cosatu.

Cosatu said the workers from 16 Sun International hotels and casinos would also stage a “march and handover a memorandum with their demands to management.”

The decision to down tools follows a collapse of wage negotiations between unions and the hotel chain. The government labor arbitrator has failed to resolve the dispute.

Simphiwe Nikiwe, a negotiator with a Cosatu affiliate union, told AFP workers were demanding a 10 percent pay rise to be back-dated to July, but their employer had offered only 6.5 percent.

Among the hotels to be affected are the popular Sun City Resort in northwestern South Africa and Grand West Casino and Entertainment World in Cape Town.