Mass industrial action has pummelled Africa´s largest economy since August, with tens of thousands of gold miners, construction workers and car manufacturing employees demanding higher pay and stalling production in sectors that represent 10 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).[break]
Now, 73,000 workers at fuel stations and garages will down tools from Monday after talks with employers collapsed, according to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa).
They will kick off the strike with marches in Cape Town and Johannesburg, then march in other cities later in the week.
The move could severely affect transport and business in the continent´s busiest economy.
"We want to settle on double digits. We want basically to improve the conditions of workers," Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim told AFP.
Fuel attendants earn around 700 rands ($70, 53 euros) a week, according to the union.
Meanwhile around 90,000 construction labourers have refused to work for 12 days, according to their labour group the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
"The strike is still continuing," NUM negotiator Bhekani Ngcobo told AFP.
The builders earn 4,000 rand ($400, 300 euros) basic salary and want it pushed up by 800 rand, the union said after lowering an earlier demand. Employers are offering 400 rand, according to Ngcobo.
Some other sectors have gradually restarted production.
A wage deal at South Africa´s third gold producer Harmony Gold ended a short-lived mass strike that had crippled an industry that contributes three percent to GDP.
"Members of the NUM have accepted the same offer made by other producers in the industry, and have returned to work," Harmony Gold said in a statement Sunday.
Tens of thousands of miners had downed tools for four days demanding salary hikes of up to 60 percent, during which the gold sector stood to lose $34 million in production every day.
By Friday strikers at most of the Chamber of Mines´ seven members had accepted a new wage offer of between 7.5 and 8.0 percent. The final holdouts, Harmony Gold employees, accepted the deal Sunday, the firm said.
"The majority have accepted the offer," NUM general secretary Frans Baleni told Sapa news agency.
Car manufacturing was also set to return to normal after a three-week stoppage.
Most of the 30,000 strikers were happy with the industry´s new offer: 11.5 percent increase this year, and 10 percent annually until 2015, according to Numsa, who said talks continued with workers from the BMW factory in Pretoria and the Toyota plant in eastern port city Durban.
At its peak the strike cost companies around $60 million a day, but some firms had made deals with employees early on.
The sector contributes around six percent to the country´s GDP and accounts for roughly 12 percent of the country´s exports.
This year, strikes have been relatively calm in contrast to those of 2012, when a police crackdown at Lonmin´s Marikana platinum mine left 34 dead and sparked deadly stoppages all over the country.
But the bitter fight for supremacy between the government-allied NUM and the upstart Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) fired up what employers considered inflated and unrealistic wage demands.
AMCU has displaced NUM in the platinum sector and is making inroads at gold mines too. Its members did not join the gold strikes.
Harmony chief executive Graham Briggs warned the gold sector could not maintain similar wage hikes as the new deal, which was "in the interests of long term industrial relations stability."
But falling gold prices, a declining grade of ore and increased costs such as electricity and wages, have drained profits.
Many firms are now looking to cut costs.
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