Workers at one of the stadia due to host the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa have downed tools in the latest pay strike to threaten tight construction deadlines, their union said Wednesday.
Work on the Mbombela Stadium outside the north-eastern city of Nelspruit has been frozen since Monday lunchtime with all but 40 of the 465-strong work force on strike, George Ledwaba of the National Union of Mineworkers told AFP. Ledwaba said the workforce was demanding a near doubling of their salaries which are currently little more than a dollar an hour.
"The workers get about ten rands (1.3 dollars) per hour. They are asking for 19 rands," he told AFP. Construction workers at Mbombela, one of 10 stadia which will host the tournament from June 2010, also went briefly on strike over wages and transport benefits in November and in December last year.