Further worker's strikes are taking place in South Africa today, but according to Agri SA CEO, Hans van der Merwe they are limited to isolated incidents in the West Cape, and nothing as bad as the strikes of last year. According to Katishi Masemola, General Secretary FAWU police fired rubber bullets at striking workers when they tried to block a road, but this has not been officially confirmed.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) called for a boycott of fruit producers that do not meet its standards. Cosatu’s provincial secretary for the Western Cape, Tony Ehrenreich, said the boycott was called on the behalf of workers facing “apartheid slave conditions on farms.”
Neither Agri SA or FAWU support such a move, van der Merwe said, "This would not be helpful, it's a desperate and extreme move and would be very harmful to growers." While Masemola said that the FAWU, "call on government and farm owners, through their organizations, to meaningfully and genuinely engage with trade unions in finding concrete and lasting resolution on the plight of farm workers and farm dwellers."
The demands from the workers is for an increase in wages from 70 rand (US$8.15) a day to 150 rand (US$17.46). Van der Merwe says in reality the wage is more often 84 Rand per day, but still admits this is not a lot of money for a family to live on. He stresses that this concerns mainly seasonal, unskilled workers who only work for 3-4 months of the year and the overall situation of individual workers can vary from farm to farm.
Masemola argues that it is more wide spread throughout the farming sector and not limited to seasonal workers.
There is a concern that growers will increase efforts to mechanise the industry and reduce reliance on labour, which would be very detrimental to the country's economy.
Both men call for talks and compromise with this situation, but think it will not be an easy process.
The future for South African fruit producers looks like it is going to be increasingly difficult, this season they are being faced with an increase of shipping rates up to as much as 30% and increasing input costs, with no prospect of the European retailers paying more for the goods, although the weaker Rand is helping slightly on the export side.
