Ishmael Modiba

Shopkeepers in Kimberley are now feeling the effects of the strike at Coca-Cola Fortune, an independent bottling company.

The aim of the strike, which started a week ago, is to demand the scrapping of labour brokering and closure of the wage gap among employees, among other things.

The employees, who are members of the Food and Allied Workers Union, said their salaries in the central region of Kimberley and Bloemfontein were lower than employees’ salaries in the East London and Mpumalanga plants.

“Workers in those two plants have also gone on strike in support of our demands,” said shop steward Daniel Mantje.

Some stores yesterday had sold out, while others were running low as no stock had been delivered since the start of the strike.

Businesses are now feeling the pinch as they have to travel some distance to collect their own stock.

A local general dealer in Gemdene, Kimberley, who wished to remain anonymous, said the strike was affecting his business badly as he now had to drive and collect his stock at the Galeshewe Wholesalers, which received stock from Bloemfontein.

“We have to go and collect the stock, which becomes expensive. For now we will have to continue to buy from other dealers,” he said.

He said he felt for the striking workers as they worked hard to support their families.

“The kind of work they do at my store is so big I could not do it myself,” he said.

The owner of a Caltex garage store in West End, who also preferred not to be named, said the strike had affected on his business as he was now forced to drive and get his own stock.

“I’m running a week behind in terms of my stock. These guys did not give us a warning when they went on strike,” he said.

He said they were not receiving deliveries and there was no one taking their orders.

Mantje said they would be driving to Bloemfontein on Thursday to hand over a memorandum of their demands to management.

mapam@thenewage.co.za