South Africa’s fruit industry has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this week.
Hot on the heels of the ‘indefinite’ banana worker strike which began on November 4 and involves 2 000 banana workers at Mpumalanga-based organic producer Umbhaba Banana Estates Farms, comes news of more industrial action by Dutoit Agri workers.
According to Freshfruitportal, the strike by 1 500 workers in the Western and Eastern Cape – members of the Food & Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) – relates to pay and working conditions.
Employees in the Western Cape are demanding a 9.5% wage increase while Dutoit is offering 8.25%. The dispute centres around a pay gap between Eastern and Western Cape workers, the report explains.
