Farm workers demands were on display at the recent Right2Know vigil in Cape Town. Photo by Kate Stegeman.
28 November 2012
The Commercial Stevedoring Agricultural & Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) is preparing for a general strike from 4 December.
CSSAWU, Mawubuye Land Rights Forum and other organisations will be holding a mass meeting in Ashton on 2 December. They are preparing for a general agricultural strike until their demands are met.
In November, farm workers in different areas of the Western Cape went on strike. According to a press statement released by CSAAWU today, ”This was a spontaneous strike driven by workers on the ground in response to decades of brutality at the hands of farmers, and a government that has thus far refused to listen to workers and transform the rural landscape characterised by dependency master-slave relations.”
CSSAWU, a coalition of farmworker organisations and AWETUC (an agricultural trade union coalition) have given the government until 4 December to meet their demands. These include a wage of R150 per day and improvements in living and working conditions.