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About 200 employees of Tiger Beverages – which manufactures drinks such as Energade, Oros, Hall’s and cordials – marched to Tiger Brands’ head office in Bryanston today.
The group, who marched under the banner of the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), handed over a memorandum that contained several demands:
» A 9% wage increment;
» A R400 monthly housing subsidy, up from R325;
» R400 monthly transport, from R325, and extended to early morning shift workers; and
» The permanent employment of 15 annually “recycled” casual workers, who have worked for 10 or more years.
Tiger Beverages is a subsidiary of Tiger Brands, one of the JSE’s top 40 listed companies, and has been dealing with strike action by about 500 members of Fawu since October 13.
Should these needs not be met, the union is threatening a nationwide strike by another 7000 workers who will stand in solidarity with the striking workers.
General secretary of Fawu, Katishi Masemola, said that they handed over the memorandum in order to seek help to facilitate the way forward.
“We are calling on the head office of Tiger Brands to intervene and resolve the dispute which has given rise to this strike action which has been ongoing for three weeks now,” Masemola said.
The memorandum was received by Tswelo Kodisang, group chief human resources officer on behalf of Tiger Brands.
“The management at Tiger Brands confirms that it received a memorandum of demands from workers employed at its beverages unit,” the company said. According to Kodisang, the company has been in engagement with the Food and Allied Workers Union to address these demands over the past three weeks.
“We remain committed to keeping the channels of communication open and to engaging with the unions to arrive at an amicable solution,” he said.
