South Africa - strike ends

World Cup construction set to resume as strike ends

Article published on the 2009-07-15 Latest update 2009-07-15 13:16 TU

Construction of South Africa's World Cup stadiums is set to resume Thursday, as building workers end a week-long strike over wages.

The strike, that threatened completion deadlines at five World Cup venues, was concluded early Wednesday morning, after 15 hours of negotiations.

Bosses agreed to a 12 per cent pay increase, just one per cent short of what unions had originally demanded

“The construction strike has been called off as of today,” said National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson Shane Choshane. "Workers will report to their workstations tomorrow morning."

He said that the construction industry had long “taken advantage” of a workforce drawn largely from South Africa’s considerable unemployed population.

An agreement was set to be signed at midday Wednesday.