Strike by 70,000 workers to begin Wednesday at World Cup stadiums

Johannesburg - Tens of thousands of construction workers at the sites of several 2010 World Cup stadiums and related building projects in South Africa are set to down tools over pay beginning on Wednesday, their union said Monday. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the union to which construction workers belong, said the threatened strike by around 70,000 workers would go ahead after the Labour Court granted them the right to strike Monday. The stadium contractors had applied for an interdict to prevent the action, which could threaten the completion on time of some of the stadiums. 'The Labour Court has this morning ruled in favour of the NUM and dismissed the case with costs. Over 70,000 construction workers will on Wednesday down tools,' NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said in a statement. Five football stadiums are being built and five are being upgraded for the World Cup, which is being held for the first time in Africa. While there have been short strikes at individual stadiums before, this would involve far more workers. One new stadium in Port Elizabeth has been completed but some of the others, like Cape Town's new 68,000-seat Greenpoint stadium, are already operating to tight deadlines. The action will also affect World Cup-related projects, such as a fast train (Gautrain) being built to link Johannesburg airport and the city's Sandton business district and a new airport in Durban. Work on new power stations in the country will also be halted, NUM said. The workers are demanding a wage increase of 13 per cent; the employers are offering 10 per cent. 'The 3 per cent is not much,' Seshoka told the German Press Agency dpa. 'But for the poor worker earning 2,500 rand (around 318 dollars a month), that 100 rand (the figure he put on the difference) is much.'