A SHORT BACKGROUND ON THE CLOVER STRIKE
excerpt from the Giwusa website
In 2019, Clover was bought out by MILCO Consortium, which is led by racist, imperialist Israel’s top manufacturer and distributor of beverages, Central Bottling Company (CBC) for R4 800 000 000! R4.8 BILLION, yet workers are having to fight against wage slashes, retrenchments, factory closures and for decent working conditions that don’t see them:
- Freezing in refrigerators without protective clothing or equipment
- Being subjected to indiscriminate overtime without warning
- Breaking their backs and risking their lives by both driving and offloading products with no account for tonnage
- Being ripped apart from their families, having to work up to 7 days a week and on public holidays
- Or being informally employed as labour broker workers for decades
All of this for earnings that fall so far below a living wage, workers can barely survive!
Clover is a Multibillion Rand Company and the biggest employer in the Dairy Industry in South Africa, employing approximately 9000 workers. We reject the brutalities of Clover, seemingly intent on destroying the lives and bodies of workers for profit, recklessly continuing poverty wages, and endlessly repeating its history of vicious, relentless attacks against the rights of all workers in South Africa!
#WorkersNeedWayBetter!
On the 22nd of November 2021, Clover workers organised under GIWUSA and the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) embarked on indefinite strike action against austerity, retrenchments, wage cuts and the MILCO/CBC take-over of Clover. More than four months later, the strike is ongoing, with Clover stubbornly and arrogantly refusing to meet the demands of striking workers.
We are calling for the nationalisation of Clover under democratic control and management of workers, communities and consumers. In doing so, we will defend jobs, ensure decent wages and conditions for workers, and affordable, quality dairy products for starving and poor communities.
