South Africa: Shop stewards sacked for safety strike

At the Enstra paper mill in Sappi's home country of South Africa, 19 shop stewards were suspended from work and now await discipline.

They are charged with inciting workers to strike after a worker refused to do unsafe work. That worker is one of 23 other workers who remain on the job, but also face discipline for their roles in 3 short safety strikes. Sappi originally sought to sack 4 stewards, but when the union CEPPWAWU said no, Sappi suspended all shop stewards, leaving the 700-worker paper mill unrepresented. In the aftermath of the strikes, a joint labour-management group filed a report on the causes of the safety breach and subsequent strikes, complete with recommendations, but mill management ignored those recommendations and despite global calls to CEO Ralph Boettger from Sappi workers in 7 countries to drop this matter, Sappi is going ahead with the discipline. Your voice is needed now - write directly to the Industrial Relations people who are handling this matter.

goto http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=550

to send your protest