Construction workers in South Africa have agreed to end a weeklong strike that threatened to derail the completion of already tightly scheduled projects for the World Cup, union officials and employers said Wednesday. Workers agreed on a pay increase of 12 percent, below the earlier demand of 13 percent. Work will commence on Thursday.
"The strike is over," said Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers. "We got a good offer." About 70,000 workers began striking last Wednesday, stopping work on stadiums, airports, freeways and Johannesburg's new high-speed rail link – projects scheduled for completion by December.
South Africa, a regional economic powerhouse, has an unemployment rate of about 25 percent and has also entered a recession for the first time in nearly two decades. The economy has shrunk 6.4 percent, putting pressure on companies, and there have already been hundreds of layoffs.
The new World Cup wage agreement includes concessions by employers on a number of benefits such as annual leave, bonuses and severance procedures. Mike Wylie, spokesman for the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, an employers' group, said management sympathized with workers' concerns. But Wylie also suggested that companies needed to be realistic with their concessions to workers. "It is no good if we are sympathetic and not being sustainable," Wylie said. "If we are not sustainable, a lot of people would lose their jobs."