There was no progress in negotiations between Woolworths and Saccawu in their meeting at the CCMA on Friday.

Woolworths and representatives of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers' Unions remained in the talks while thousands of others delivered a memorandum of grievances to Business Unity South Africa officials in Sandton.

"There's no progress [we're] still negotiating this side. This is only the start, nothing concrete has come out of it," said Saccawu general secretary Bones Skulu.

"We've divided ourselves, some of us have gone to the march."

He said the aim of the meeting was, as per court order, for the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to consider an application for the amendment of strike rules.

This would enable workers to picket inside Woolworths stores.

"A majority of these shops are inside shopping malls, therefore workers are forced to picket outside or at the entrance of that mall."

He said the meeting was also to pursue intervention by the labour department or ministry.

Chief operating officer of support services at Woolworths, Zyda Rylands, said talks were still in progress and the company would continue to negotiate in good faith.

She said the strike on Friday had minimal impact on trading and all Woolworths shops were open for business.

However, a few shops closed for "a short while" on Friday when picketing rules were infringed.

"We only closed a few shops for a short while to protect customers and staff. They were open after a court interdict for them to abide by the picketing rules was issued," said Rylands.

Woolworths and Saccawu have been in a dispute for weeks.

The company claims the union does not have enough members to be recognised.

Ryland said only five percent of the workforce participated in the strike.

She said there was no need for a strike because the company had agreed to a joint verification process.

"All they need to do is to come forward with sufficient representation they claim to have."

Sapa