Sugar strikers win pay increase

Striking workers at Swaziland's Ubombo Sugar Company
have won a 10 percent pay increase, despite suffering
intimidation by the Swazi Army and state security forces.
The workers had been on strike for more than three weeks
at the sugar company which is 40 percent owned by King
Mswati III, the absolute monarch of Swaziland.
The management of the company, which is also known as
Illovo, had successfully obtained a court order to restrict
the workers pickets away from the main sugar plantation
estate, near Big Bend.
Earlier, state police the Operational Support Services Unit
(OSSU) had used teargas and water canon to disperse
protesting workers.
Media in Swaziland reported that soldiers, warders and
police were deployed throughout the small town to stop
workers from disrupting the sugar plant.
The Swazi Observer , a newspaper in effect owned by King
Mswati, estimated the strike had cost Ubombo E2.4 million
(US$240,000) since it began on 13 June 2014. The
management had originally offered a 7.5 percent pay
increase.