Cyril in favour of strike polls

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said unionised workers should be allowed to vote on whether to strike.

More than 200000 workers in the metals and engineering sector are currently on strike, only a few weeks after the five-month platinum miners' strike ended.

Speaking in Cape Town yesterday, Ramaphosa said that, as a former unionist, he believed "strike ballots should be the norm to signify the intention and the determination of workers to strike".

Many unions are resistant to the idea of strike ballots, though Ramaphosa said he believed they would benefit both unions and businesses because they would give an accurate measurement of the support for a strike proposal.

Ramaphosa said the Department of Labour would soon consider making compulsory both strike ballots and arbitration in the resolution of protracted strikes.

He said this would not "dilute the hard-won constitutional rights of the working class, which must be guarded strongly".

Ramaphosa said a discussion on instituting a national minimum wage would be "a truly South African bun fight - lively, thorough, informative and enriching, culminating in a broad consensus that moves the country forward".

• The National Union of Metalworkers of SA has rejected the latest wage offer by employers because of a clause about future negotiations, Bloomberg news agency has reported. The clause stipulates that cost-related employment issues be negotiated at national and not at company or plant level.