“On Tuesday, Clover obtained a court order that orders the Unions to publicly denounce all forms of violence and intimidation against any non-striking workers and third parties, including any damage to property,” says the company’s spokesperson, Steven Velthuysen.

The company, which has six factories across the country, has seen its employees affiliated with General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa) and the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) down tools for nearly ten weeks.  

“On 28 November 2021 Clover Pty Ltd was initially granted an interdict against Giwusa and identified individual union members,” says Velthuysen.

The union members are unhappy with proposed wage cuts and recent bouts of retrenchments at Clover, which they blame on Clover’s merger with MilkCo. 

Velthuysen says the unions are required to remove all communication on their social media pages encouraging any form of violence.

“Unions (must) denounce all forms of violence and intimidation whether communicated by SMS, WhatsApp or any form of social media.

“We embarked on restructuring as a last resort. Our business was materially affected by Covid and we had little if any choice in the decision we made, which was not made lightly. We cannot and will not reverse our decision if we are to run an economically viable business,” adds Velthuysen.

Employees affiliated with Giwusa and Fawu have been on strike for nearly ten weeks. Clover is expected to meet with these striking unions on Friday.

Jacaranda News