FAWU+call+-+secondary+strikes,+consumer+boycott+of+Iwisa+and+Blue+Ribbon

Food & Allied Workers Union
Vuyisile Mini Centre, Cnr NY1 and NY 110, Guguletu, 7750 - PO Box 1234 Woodstock, 7915 Tel (021) 637 9040, Fax (021) 637 9190 - E-mail: **Dominique-fawu@telkomsa.net**


 * HEAD OFFICE**


 * Press Release, Thursday March 8, 2007, for immediate attention**

=FAWU to call for secondary strikes and consumer boycott=

After three days of national strike action by about 2000 FAWU members, FAWU will have to resort to a series of secondary strike actions within the Premier Foods group, including but not limited to Premier milling, as well as in the value chain associated with Premier, such as the grain silos and the retailers. To this effect, we will ask our sister union, SACCAWU, a COSATU affiliate which organizes retail workers, to call on its members to refuse handling all the Premier Foods products.

Management arrogantly refuses to give in to workers' demand for a national bargaining forum in its baking division. This follows a period of about nine years of pursuing this company to restore this form of centralized bargaining system since they unilaterally cancelled it in 1997. We ran out of patience when the company could not respect the advisory award issued by Commissioner from the CCMA, which award confirms the legitimate demand of the union in October last year.

Recently, management has shown nothing but contempt for their striking employees, refusing them access to simple things such as water and toilet facilities during picketing in some plants in complete disregard to the spirit and letter of labor laws.

Just yesterday, 300 Striking members at the Salt River plant in Cape Town have been intimidated by police as management called in about 10 police vans to scare workers.

Although we are aware that management are making use of scab labor since yesterday, we are quite confident they cannot deliver the high standard of bread that our members are used to producing. In any case, it is being reported that some Shoprite and Pick 'n Pay stores are already running out of Blue Ribbon bread. In fact, we are formally calling on all citizens of our country to boycott all the Premier Foods products, such as **Iwisa mealiemeal**, and particularly the **Blue Ribbon** branded bread products.

//For more information please contact General Secretary **Katishi Masemola** on **082 467 2509**.// Released by FAWU media office, Dominique Swartz @ **082 498** **//5631//**

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