2010-04-06
OHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African council workers plan to strike next week, raising fears of a repeat, two months before the World Cup, of last year's industrial action that left city streets littered with trash and burning tyres.

Leaders of the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), which has 130,000 members, said on Tuesday their main grievance was a lack of equal pay for employees doing the same job in different towns.

"We want all employees in the same category to be paid equally," National Bargaining Officer Dale Fobes said.

Several hundred council workers went on the rampage during wage negotiations in July last year, trashing city centres across South Africa as the country's leaders started the one-year count-down to the 2010 soccer World Cup.

The month-long soccer tournament kicks off on June 11.

Besides hitting basic services such as street sweeping, rubbish collection and vehicle licensing, a SAMWU strike has little economic impact.