Striking World Cup workers say they struggle to survive as bosses seek billions in profits

Striking WCup workers say they struggle to survive

JOHANNESBURG — Mildred Mpundo can only afford to serve meat to her family on Sundays. The rest of the week the mother of four scratches meals out of cornmeal porridge and spinach.

Candies that cost only a few cents and cheap, salty snacks are “like a loaf of bread” on her table — the staple food being unaffordable at about a $1 a loaf.

Mpundo earns about $250 per month, with overtime, for her work as a laborer at Johannesburg’s flagship stadium, the gourd-shaped Soccer City, where the opening and final matches of World Cup will be held next year.

She and tens of thousands of workers who are building stadiums across the country say they aren’t being paid enough for their role in making South Africa ready to host the world’s most popular sporting event — and went on strike last week.

The walkout halted work on tournament sites as well airport, road and transportation projects.

A deal was struck early Wednesday morning and work resumes Thursday. But the strike has thrown into stark relief the divide between the wages World Cup workers earn and the billions tournament organizers can expect in profits.

Some World Cup laborers take home less than $100 dollars a month. A ticket to a World Cup game at Soccer City will cost up to $900.

“People will come to the stadium and think it is very nice,” Mpundo said. “They won’t even know that the people who built it can’t afford to go inside.”

Stadium and infrastructure projects ahead of the 2010 World Cup have employed thousands and shielded South Africa from the worst of the global economic downturn. South Africa, which has fallen into recession, has about a 25 percent unemployment rate and inflation running at about 8 percent.

Despite a minimum wage being set at about $300 a month, a growing number of “casual workers” have spent years with companies without earning permanent worker benefits like transportation and accommodation allowances.

Mpundo came from Botswana to Johannesburg seeking a job a few years ago. Now, her salary runs through her fingers like water.

First, there are school fees for her four children, aged 10-21. “I want them to prosper,” she said. “I don’t want them to be like me, to work in construction.”

And there are other costs, too: minibuses to get to and from work, the $50 rent she pays for a room in Soweto, and the ever-increasing cost of food. “As soon as I get it,” Mpundo says, “it is finished.”

Mpundo was one of a few hundred workers gathered at Soccer City on Tuesday while leaders from both sides were locked in talks to end the strike.

Their union was demanding a 13 percent pay increase but have settled on 12 percent with employers making concessions on a number of benefits such as annual leave, bonuses and severance procedures.

Patrick Craven of the Congress of South African Trade Unions said that the union’s request was modest.

“We’d argue that workers who are doing such dangerous and important jobs should be earning far more than what they’re getting,” he said, adding that the World Cup would underscore South Africa’s notorious gap between rich and poor.

Mike Wylie, chairman of WBHO, a construction company that saw about 10,000 workers go on strike, said employers sympathize with the workers’ plight.

He said the new deal will go a “long way” to improving pay packages but said there was only so far companies can go in boosting wages and benefits.

“It is no good if we are sympathetic and not being sustainable. If we are not sustainable a lot of people would lose their jobs,” Wylie said.

Some have suggested that striking World Cup construction workers are lucky to find work at all amid rounds of layoffs in other sectors. Others have also criticized the strikers for jeopardizing South Africa’s chances of hosting a successful World Cup.

“Some strikes can’t help being seen as opportunistic and even manipulative, especially those affecting progress toward the 2010 World Cup,” said Neren Rau of the South African Chamber of Commerce.

He agreed that wages are not at a “desirable level,” but said workers need to be “flexible” during the global economic downturn.

Among the striking workers at Soccer City, there was little will for flexibility.

“If I take my children here and say ‘I’ve built that stadium,’ they will not believe you, because you have nothing,” said David Mahlangu, a laborer.

Mpundo’s friend Victoria Noki is a single mother of three. She said that her monthly salary was the equivalent of about $100 per month.

If workers did not see wage increase and better working conditions, there would be a lot of unfinished stadiums in South Africa next year, she said.

“If you want it to be 2010, help us. Otherwise, you won’t see it,” Noki said. “It will be 2011.”