Vodacom will be served with a 48-hours strike notice this week, says the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
The action was sparked by a dispute in which the union accused Vodacom of refusing to recognise it as a representative labour organisation within the company and denying it its organisational rights.
Vodacom has rubbished the CWU's claims, saying the union has insufficient representation in the company to be recognised as a representative body.
Telkom, where the union claims to have 9 000 members, and other companies that are associated with Vodacom, will also receive the notice, in a bid to mobilise a sympathy strike, the union says.
"The strike is set to go," says CWU spokesman Mfanafuthi Sithebe.
Sithebe says the organisation has galvanised support from its affiliates, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions, to stage sympathy protests across the country against "unfair treatment of workers in the telecommunications sector".
He adds all of its 1 200 members at Vodacom will down tools. However, he did not say how many workers countrywide are expected to be involved in the mass action. "We expect a major turnout," he says.
Vodacom has, in the past, stated that due to the limited number of CWU members inside the company, there would be little impact on its operations should a protest action take place.
The strike comes after talks between Vodacom and the CWU, at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), deadlocked earlier this month.
The CCMA has issued the union a strike certificate, allowing it to embark on protected industrial action.
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Vodacom faces CCMA
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