ISA is proud of the role WASP played in mobilising support for the strike by Clover workers in South Africa, including international solidarity from Socialist Struggle Movement in Israeli-Palestine, where the headquarters of the company are located.
After nine weeks of strike action, Clover workers have come out victorious with a collective agreement between Clover management and workers organised under GIWUSA, supported by SAFTU, signed on December 9. WASP congratulates the workers and GIWUSA on a determined struggle to force Clover management to concede a 6.5% wage increase, the insourcing of 380 labour-brokered workers, and an end to compulsory work during public holidays.
In this period of the pandemic and the worst economic downfall in a century, the Clover struggle and workers’ victory is a testament to the resolute determination of the workers. Most importantly, however, it represents a fighting alternative to the whole workers’ movement against wage freezes, austerity and restructurings imposed in the name of the Covid pandemic.
Clover bosses fear open conflict after era of exploitation
Clover workers have been building for a battle with the company in response to worsening employment conditions marked by restructurings and increased working hours after the introduction of a compressed working and public holidays were taken away. At the same time wages stagnated at R5,000–6,000, which in real terms means falling income and living standards as the cost of living continues to skyrocket due to price hikes in electricity, transport and basic necessities. After years of setbacks for Clover workers, the union had this time been preparing for a reckoning with the company over a period of months and it delivered a serious fightback against the bosses’ era of exploitation.
Despite being an essential service and operating throughout lockdown, Clover management declared a wage freeze for the 2020/2021 period and refused to offer any increases. Only after realising that GIWUSA was mobilising for an all-out confrontation and obtaining a strike certificate, did the company offer a 3% increase at the CCMA. When that was overwhelmingly rejected by the workers, Clover increased the offer to 5% the day before the strike, in clear desperation to avert open confrontation. The bosses knew such a battle would reveal the real power workers possess, which for years were concealed by the compromises of trade union leaders, especially FAWU (which also organises at Clover).
A striking campaign
The strike started on 13 October 2020 in major Clover plants organised under GIWUSA across the country, including Clayville, Cape Town, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga. Unfortunately, the FAWU leadership decided not to participate and even actively sought to sabotage the strike by entering into an agreement with the bosses a few days after the strike was declared. Despite GIWUSA members’ rejection of the FAWU agreement, SAFTU leadership failed to reprimand FAWU bureaucrats for their traitorous actions. Although this deprived workers of united power, the strike paralysed many operations of the company especially in the Clayville factory where a majority of GIWUSA’s 2,000 members are located. The depot supplies Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northwest and the country’s economic hub, Gauteng province.
The relentless daily pickets at Clover depots, flying pickets and mass demonstrations to the company’s local head office and other strategic landmarks were a remarkable show of working-class power. The fighting spirit and determination were crucial to maintaining momentum and cohesion of the workers over such a long period.
Class and international solidarity
The power to shut down production was the primary weapon in the Clover strike, but it was not the only strategy of the union. GIWUSA and WASP mobilised solidarity across the workers’ movement, in communities and internationally. A solidarity campaign made up of organised labour, community and Left activists was initiated to drive #BoycottClover, which saw many activists visiting malls to put #BoycottClover stickers on Clover products, picketing and leafleting to raise public awareness of the strike. There was also a concerted mobilisation of the community support especially in Tembisa, next to the Clayville plant.
The demonstration of working class solidarity was key. Not only did it exert pressure on the company management, but it was vital for the morale and confidence of workers. In a climate where workers across all sectors are forced to accept wage freezes due to class-collaborationist tactics of trade union leadership, and the hypocritical policy of ‘political truce” during this pandemic, continuing such a fight is hard work.
The sense of solidarity that Clover workers showed other workers and oppressed people was even more remarkable. The workers joined the SAFTU pickets to protest reneging on collective agreements in the public sector and the occupation of South Point in Johannesburg in response to TERS-related grievances. They also joined the thousands of Cell C workers who have been on strike against retrenchments since September, making it the biggest strike in the country this year.
Of notable significance was the demonstration at the Israeli embassy in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine, to protest colonial land dispossessions and military occupation of Palestine by Israeli imperialism. This demonstration was part of the ongoing GIWUSA campaign to reject Milco SA, a consortium owned by the Central Bottling Company (Coca Cola Israel), taking over Clover, in protest over its operations in settlements on Palestinian land.
Fundamental lessons
The Clover strike makes clear the possibility of struggle and working-class victories in periods of crisis. The unity, determination to fight, and a clear program of rolling mass actions were decisive factors in smashing the stubborn resistance of Clover.
The working class solidarity expressed in the support of the local community of Tembisa amongst others, in the #BoycottClover campaign organised and actively supported by many working class community and left activist groups, and international solidarity played a major role in the strike’s success. Ensuring that solidarity was not one-way, workers actively mobilised for other struggles. This was also fundamental to political education, cultivating class consciousness, and lifting of morale of workers.
WASP once again congratulates Clover workers and GIWUSA leadership on their resounding victory against Clover, and Nature’s Garden before it.
This battle was won, but the war is far from over as long as capitalism remains. It is important that workers do not become complacent while bosses inevitably seek to claw back their losses. In order to defend the gains and build workers unity for the future battles that certainly will come, WASP calls on GIWUSA members and all of Clover workers – including those currently outsourced to labour brokers – should organise Clover-wide discussions on the lessons of the strike and the next steps, new targets and campaigns both in their workplaces and communities.
Ultimately, we need to build a sector wide campaign to raise the minimum wage in the food sector to a living wage of R12,500. WASP calls for GIWUSA to lead this campaign building on the solid foundations of these courageous and successful battles. SAFTU too has a critical role in this fight and must call on its affiliates to join in a sustained campaign for a living wage and against rampant exploitation in the sector.
Both the wider food industry and society as a whole, in SA and the world, are set for a stormy period ahead as capitalism has only crises and pain to offer the working class. The fighting spirit displayed and tested in this strike will be needed in the struggle for an entirely different society, where production is for the needs of the many not the profits of the few — a socialist world.
It is critical that we identify the problems with limiting the struggle to the negotiation table. For us trade unions alone are not an adequate vehicle. A revolutionary party is also necessary. A revolutionary party works to win the working class to a revolutionary socialist program in every theatre of struggle — the workplaces, the communities, the schools and the campuses — and not just in one country, but worldwide. A revolutionary socialist program is also the necessary starting point to build broader working class unity, and end all forms of exploitation for once and for all.
