SACP stands in solidarity with Festive Chicken Workers fighting for a living
wage, condemns reported police violence against the striking workers
The South African Communist Party (SACP) expresses
full solidarity with thousands of workers at Festive Chicken who have launched an
indefinite protected strike in Gauteng and Mpumalanga to secure a living wage and
better working conditions.
The workers are demanding a mere R13,500 per month. According to the Casual
Workers Advice Office, some Festive Chicken workers currently earn as little as
R5,600 per month for a 45-hour workweek, while workers on some poultry farms
reportedly earn about R7,300 per month for a 48-hour workweek.
The strike includes
workers at the major Festive Chicken processing operation in Olifantsfontein in
Gauteng, as well as chicken catchers and workers involved in live-bird handling.
These wages must be measured against the real conditions facing working-class
households. Workers do not live on abstract percentages.
They must pay for food,
transport, electricity, rent and housing, school costs, healthcare and other necessities.
A wage that cannot support a worker and their family with dignity is not a decent wage
just because it meets a statutory minimum.
A living wage is affordable: Astral cannot plead poverty
Festive Chicken is part of Astral Foods, one of South Africa’s major integrated poultry
enterprises. Astral’s own financial results make the contrast between corporate
prosperity and workers’ wages impossible to ignore.
For the six months ended 31 March 2026, Astral reported revenue of approximately
R11.9 billion, profit before interest and tax of over R1.2 billion, profit for the period of
approximately R895.5 million, and a cash balance of more than R1.15 billion.
The
company also declared an interim dividend of 1,160 cents per share.
For the previous full financial year, Astral reported revenue of R22.6 billion, operating
profit of approximately R1.25 billion and profit for the year of R876 million.
These figures demonstrate that this is not fundamentally a struggle against an
enterprise without resources. It is a struggle over how the wealth created through
workers’ labour is distributed.
The Casual Workers Advice Office, citing Astral’s 2025 Annual Report, has further
highlighted that CEO Gary Arnold received total remuneration of approximately R27.9
million for that financial year. Astral’s audited results separately record total
remuneration for its executive directors of approximately R78.18 million for the year
ended September 2025.
The SACP therefore calls on Astral Foods and Festive Chicken to engage the workers
seriously and in good faith and to meet the legitimate demand for a living wage. A
highly profitable company cannot celebrate strong earnings, cash generation and
shareholder returns while workers producing that wealth struggle to afford the
necessities of life.
Workers are being crushed by the cost-of-living crisis
The Festive Chicken workers’ struggle takes place amid a severe cost-of-living crisis.
In October alone, the regulated petrol price increased by approximately R3.12 per litre
for 93-octane petrol and R3.33 per litre for 95-octane petrol, while diesel increased by
between roughly R2.84 and R3.24 per litre.
By 21 October, 95-octane petrol was
around R30.25 per litre inland.
Every such increase hits working-class family budgets. It raises the direct cost of taxis
and other transport and contributes to higher costs throughout food production and
distribution and other essential goods and services.
The government’s temporary fuel-levy relief announced in the Medium-Term Budget
Policy Statement, R1.50 per litre on petrol and R3 per litre on diesel from 4 November
to 1 December, followed by smaller reductions until early January, provides some
immediate relief, but it is temporary and inadequate to the structural scale of the costof-living crisis affecting workers.
South Africa needs a much deeper solution, including production income distribution
justice and an economic policy that protects working-class households from repeatedly
absorbing the external shocks while executive pay is sky-high.
Austerity compounds the pressure on workers
The struggle for improvements for workers at Festive Chicken also cannot be
separated from the broader macro-economic environment.
The SACP has already rejected the austerity path and its continuation through the
2026 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement. The current fiscal framework restrains
expenditure growth while unemployment, poverty and inequality remain at crisis levels.
This approach constrains public investment, employment creation, social protection
and the capacity of the state and municipalities to meet working-class needs.
When public services are weakened, transport becomes unaffordable, administered
prices rise and social provision fails to keep pace with need.
The costs do not
disappear. They are pushed back into households.
Therefore, the struggle for a living wage is inseparable from the struggle against
austerity and the broader struggle for macro-economic policy change.
Reported police attack on protected strikers requires immediate investigation
The SACP is deeply alarmed by reports received today that police used rubber bullets
against workers participating in the Festive Chicken strike, resulting in injuries to
striking workers and organisers, with some requiring hospital treatment.
These reports
require immediate explanation and investigation.
Workers participating peacefully in a protected strike are exercising a constitutionally
protected, hard-won labour right. The police have no mandate to become an
instrument for breaking lawful industrial action or intimidating workers on behalf of an
employer.
The SACP therefore calls for:
1. an immediate cessation of repression and any unjustified use of force against
the striking workers;
2. urgent medical assistance and support for all those injured;
3. a transparent investigation into the circumstances in which police force was
used;
4. accountability for any unlawful or disproportionate conduct;
5. protection of the workers’ lawful right to strike, assemble and organise; and
6. urgent engagement by the employer aimed at resolving the wage dispute rather
than escalating confrontation.
The Party also notes CWAO's allegation that workers were threatened with dismissal
and pressured to sign documents relating to participation in the strike. CWAO says
Lawyers for Human Rights wrote to Festive demanding an end to alleged intimidation.
These allegations should be answered directly by the company.
An injury to one is an injury to all
The SACP calls upon the trade-union movement, workers in other workplaces,
progressive civil-society organisations, community organisations and working-class
communities to express practical solidarity with the Festive Chicken workers.
This dispute raises a question extending far beyond one workplace: Who benefits from
the wealth workers create?
South Africa cannot build an inclusive economy while companies generate hundreds
of millions of rand in profits and substantial shareholder value-capture while the
workers at the heart of production remain trapped in poverty wages.
Astral Foods and Festive Chicken must return to meaningful negotiations, stop any
intimidation of workers, recognise the legitimacy of workers’ rights for decent
livelihoods and pay a living wage.
The working class must not be forced to choose between going hungry and
surrendering its right to organise.
KASiBCAFRiCA©®™
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