Over 70,000 workers labouring on South Africa's World Cup stadiums embarked on a strike Wednesday to press for higher wages, sparking fears of building delays a yeear before the sporting event The strike threatens the completion deadlines at five venues for the 2010 FIFA World Cup stadiums and other major projects associated with the event.
"The government must help us, otherwise we are going to delay 2010. We will strike until 2011," said National Union of Mineworkers spokesman Lesiba Seshoka. "The protest will end at the time when SAFCEC (South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors) agrees to the 13 percent," Seshoka said. The NUM is demanding a 13 percent wage increase as well as benefits such as paid maternity leave and better safety regulations.
SAFCEC was offering a 10 percent increase, and spokesman Joe Campanella said the union demands totalled a wage increase of 65 percent in rand terms, not 13 percent. Paul Malatjie, 28, a construction worker at the Soccer City Stadium where workers danced and chanted revolutionary songs, said workers deserved better pay for their work.
"Look at the wonderful work they have done, but they need to be paid for it. The people that are benefiting are the wealthy, we are wondering where is their money... at the end of the day we are not even going to able to watch one single game."
The Congress of South African Trade Unions released a statement yesterday pledging its "total support" to the construction workers. "Construction workers regularly put their lives on the line doing what is one of the most dangerous jobs. They require high levels of skill and have contributed massively to the development of the country, yet receive next to nothing in return," it stated.
"COSATU, and the construction workers, are as passionate about the 2010 World Cup as anyone, and will do everything possible to ensure its success. But we will not tolerate the stadiums being built by workers who are underpaid or working in dangerous and unhealthy conditions," it said. Workers at the Soccer City Stadium in the Soweto township outside Johannesburg also complained of the high cost of transport to the stadium and that companies made them use their own tools rather than providing them. About 2,000 workers stopped work at midday at Soccer City Stadium while over a thousand walked out of the construction site of Cape Town's Green Point stadium.