South African Strike Shuts Plants, Disrupts Public Transport

A strike by South African unions to demand an increase to the proposed national minimum wage shut down vehicle manufacturing plants and disrupted public transportation in some of the nation’s main cities.

The one-day national strike was called by the South African Federation of Trade Unions, a group of 30 bodies representing almost 800,000 workers that says the hourly minimum wage of 20 rand ($1.61) amounts to “slave labor.” The group, formed following a breakaway from the ruling party-aligned Congress of South African Trade Unions, also wants the government to do more to address poverty and create jobs and scrap proposals to make it more difficult to strike.