The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) of North America has lent its support to striking Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) members striking at Coca-Cola ABI in South Africa.

Visiting officials from SEIU called on Coca-Cola to improve workers' conditions and pay.

"We stand together with our brothers and sisters of the Fawu in South Africa who, for five weeks, have been on strike protesting Coca-Cola ABI's ongoing practice of eroding workers' conditions and benefits through labour-broking and the use of short-term contracts," SEIU president Andy Stern and SEIU secretary-treasurer Anna Berger said in a statement on Monday.

They called on Coca-Cola ABI to pay the 9.5 percent wage increase demanded by its workers and to cease its efforts "to undermine workers' conditions".

Deny a decent wage

They said Fawu workers had already called for a consumer boycott of Coca-Cola products by members of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu).

"If Coca-Cola ABI continues to refuse to treat their workers fairly and to deny a decent wage, we will seek support for this campaign from our members and other unions in the United States and Canada."

A delegation from SEIU, a trade union with 2.2 million members in North America, visited South Africa last week.

During the visit, Stern, Berger and other officials met President Jacob Zuma and South African unions.

Meanwhile ABI — a soft drink division of brewery group SABMiller — was offering an actual salary increase of 7.8 percent or an 8.3 percent total package increase.

According to the company, less than a third of 3800 employees were on strike, while Fawu insisted more than 2000 workers were involved in the industrial action.

Sapa

The Competition Commission has referred its findings of price fixing against 28 bicycle wholesalers and retailers to the Tribunal for adjudication.

The firms face the allegation that they colluded to set the wholesale and retail prices of cycles and accessories. In addition, they are alleged to have excluded competitors from the market.

Wholesalers sent retailers a price list with the wholesale price and the recommended retail price on a regular basis. The recommended retail price includes a mark-up of 35 percent for bicycles and 50 percent for accessories. In turn, the ceiling on mark-ups also determined the profit/margin that retailers could make on cycles and accessories.

Bicycle retailers colluded to exclude competitors like internet retailers from the market. The stratagem employed was to ask the wholesaler to sell to independent retailers at a higher price. The Competition Commission believes this conduct is likely to harm competitors and consumers.

The Commission has asked the Tribunal to levy an administrative penalty of 10 percent on the annual turnover of each of the firms involved.

The firms facing these allegations include retailers Fritz Pienaar Cycles, Cycle Lab, Hotspot Cycles, Maverick Cycles, Dunkeld Cycles, Summit Cycles, Bester Cycles, Johnson Cycle Works, Salojee's Cycles, West Rand Cycles, Bowman Cycles, Winners Cycles.

Will you purchase a bicycle or parts from the retailers allegedly involved in price-fixing? Vote in our poll

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