South African fruit growers are expected to resume full-scale harvesting and packing operations after unions ended strike action that had resulted in large-scale disruptions and damage to property over the past three months, a provincial Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) official said on Tuesday (22 January).
'On the advice of workers, we are calling off the strike actions in all areas, so that workers can evaluate the victories that they have gained, and plan more carefully for the way forward,' explained Tony Ehrenreich, the Western Cape secretary general of Cosatu.
The Hex River Valley bore the brunt of the three-month unrest and, until this week, most growers could only pack small volumes with skeleton staff compliments.
'We are back in business,' noted leading Hex River grape grower Anton Viljoen snr. 'Our grapes are ready and we have started packing at full-scale, so you can tell the international trade that they can expecta quality crop as we move through our season.'
Strike damage was not limited to the Hex River Valley, though with growers in Ceres, Wolseley, the Berg River Valley near Paarl, Villiersdorp, Robertson, Ashton and Ladismith all reporting damage and disruptions.
Ehrenreich has, however, warned that Cosatu would be launching a new strike later in the year if no agreement can be reached on a better daily wage, decent farm conditions and a comprehensive land reform plan.
Farmworkers first went on strike last year, calling for the minimum daily wage to be increased from R69 to R150. The strike was suspended in December, but resumed a few weeks ago in various towns in the province.
Cosatu suspended the strike a week ago on condition that farmers' organisation Agri SA agreed not to victimise workers and committed to 'local-level' agreements, although at the time the union federation said the strike would resume this week should these conditions not be met.
On Tuesday, Ehrenreich said that while workers wanted to continue with the strike, they also had to consider the impact on children who had no food at home: 'We are also mindful of the fact that these industries belong to the people of South Africa, and while we want to ruin bad farmers, we don't want to ruin our industries.'
While the strike is over and the industry returns to normality, it is certain much will have to be done to repair relations which have been damaged by the action and the violence of the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, international receivers will be relieved because of concerns that South African growers would be unable to fulfill supply commitments.
Logistics companies had complained that the uncertainty made it impossible for them to plan export operations.
At the end of week two South African table grape shipments were running 5m cartons behind the figures for the corresponding period last year, with northern Europe, the UK and the Far East being the most affected markets.
Apart from the delay to export operations, the most serious damaged occurred on the Sandrivier Estate near Paarl where the packhouse of well-known businessman Jan le Roux was destroyed by fire.
Growers in the region described the facility as one of the best-equippedstonefruit and citrus packhouses in the country, and are assisting the farm to pack their fruit in order to minimise further losses.
