Rolling Mass Action and the Protest March to KwaZulu-Natal Legislature

5th December 2016

The Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) is embarking on a third leg, of its rolling mass action against job losses in the poultry industry due to the EU Dumping, by staging a protest march to the KZN Legislature under the following arrangement

Date:       06th December 2016
Times:    10h00-13h00
Route:    From Mayors Walk Road till the Legislature Building at 239 Langalibalele Street in Pietermaritzburg, where Memo of Petition will be handed to the Premier

This protest action is expected to draw up to 800 workers, including a sizable number of the 1 250 earmarked for retrenchments, by one of the poultry companies in KZN.

Further, this protest march follows a successful march by 900 workers that went to the National Parliament last week Wednesday and the other march by 1 200 workers to the European Union (EU) Commission Embassy in Pretoria the week before.

We hope that lawmakers in all provincial legislatures and national parliament would listen to the outcry for these jobs to be defended and for the dumped chicken from EU to be restricted and thereby encouraging the Cabinet to call for a review of the EU/SA Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which gave rise to the grave situation facing the domestic poultry industry, as soon as possible but noting that every day passing one of the poultry companies is losing R1m a day and therefore time is of essence.

we hope that the Ministers of Trade and Industry and that of Agriculture will find it prudent to meet with us and the industry sooner than later as the EU Commission Ambassador met with us within 96 hours of having staged a protest march. Access to meet our Government cannot take weeks or months as there is no luxury to delay in the face of the real0life crises of job-loss bloodbath.

For information call the Katishi Masemola, FAWU General Secretary, at 082 467 2509