Last ditch meeting to avert DBN stadium strike

Unions and management of the company contracted to build Durban's 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium would meet on Tuesday in a last ditch attempt to avert a strike that would halt construction at the stadium. The Stadium is being built by a Group Five-WBHO Consortium. Both Craig Jessop, Group 5's KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) managing director, and Msi Poswa, KZN regional organiser and chief negotiator for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said on Monday the two parties would be meeting with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in a bid to avert workers downing tools at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday. Poswa said union members would be meeting with the CCMA at 10am on Tuesday. "If no agreement is reached at the meeting, then we will go ahead with the strike on Wednesday," he said. He said that unions are demanding project bonuses of R1 500 a month for each worker. Initially, R9 an hour had been demanded. Last week NUM said it was demanding project bonuses of R1,200 a month, but Poswa said the union had "reverted back to R1,500 because management has not moved at all." "We know that the government is paying R2.6 billion (for the construction project). We want to get a share in that," he said. NUM are also demanding that workers be allowed to elect a full-time safety compliance worker. ( (SAPA)