Clover says the decision to close some of its factories was approved by the Competition Commission in 2019. This was before the merger with Milco, a subsidiary of the Israeli Central Bottling Company, which bought a 60% stake in the company in 2019.
As the strike at Clover enters its third month, the dairy producer approached the courts for the second time.
This is in an attempt to protect non-striking workers against violence and attacks, including any damage to property. This comes after the company retrenched 850 workers, amid a restructuring process.
The move has also resulted in the closure of some of its factories.
Clover says the decision to restructure its business emanates from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As in any economy, which is unpredictable, nobody at the time predicted that we were going to have COVID-19, nobody predicted that it is going to have such detrimental impact on all businesses. Unfortunately, we did not have a choice given the poor financial results, we had to undertake a restructuring process, so we understand that the conditions and we’ve never breached those conditions,” says Clover Group Manager Steven Velthuysen.
Velthuysen says some of the company’s trucks have been burnt:
Unions and Clover management held another round of negotiations on Thursday in Centurion. South African Federation of Trade Unions’ General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi also attended the meeting.
“It looks like we’re going to say goodbye to the days where we make demands. The company is turning the whole negotiations upside down, they’re making demands on workers, and their demand is that we must expect the 20% wage cut, their demand is to accept thousands of job losses by factory closures.”
Another union leader, General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa) President Mametlwe Sebei says Clover management is still adamant on its restructuring plan as well as retrenchments.
“There’s clearly an impasse as you know, we’re not making as much progress as we’d hope for. The reality is that the company is not coming with proposals that address the issues of job losses, the issue of measures that workers completely reject, they are unreasonable, also the issue of factory closures.”
Clover has refuted allegations made by unions regarding workers’ 13th cheques. It says it has processed the cheques and they were paid last Friday.
