A three-week long strike started by truck drivers in South Africa is reported to have ended following renegotiations involving the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Aribitration (CCMA).

 
The South African Transport & Allied Workers' Union (SATAWU) and several smaller groups agreed Friday to an offer from the Road Freight Employers Association to raise all truckers' pay by 10% in March. Their salaries will rise 8% a year later and 9% in 2015.

The strike action, which hit inbound supplies to carmaker plants in the region, including General Motors’ plants in Port Elizabeth, started with a dispute over pay between truck drivers and the Road Freight Employers' Association (RFEA). Striking drivers had demanded a 12% wage increase per year until 2014, while employers offered a 10% increase in the first year and 8% in the second.
 
The dispute escalated to include the SATAWU and affected Transnet port and rail services.

In an official statement GM said that the strike had disrupted material supply activities at its vehicle assembly facility but that it had had a contingency plan in place that enabled it to continue building vehicles, though not at normal production levels. Normal services were maintained from Port Elizabeth port.

“Actions of this nature affect the competitiveness of business operations and send a very negative message about doing business in this country,” said GM in the statement, but it added that the end of the strike meant that normal production would be resumed going forward.

 
Although this strike has been resolved, about twice as many workers as were involved in it remain on strike in the mining industry.