Soccer World Cup 2010 Stadium Construction would be halted if a payment dispute between construction workers and their employers are not resolved properly. South Africa’s biggest union `The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)` on Tuesday confirmed its members in the construction sector would launch a strike over pay next week. ’A strike action is set to begin on July 8,’ said NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka.

A prolonged strike could cause partial shut down of an economy and could scare foreign investors.The N.U.M said the strike action, which already halted the construction of a 2010 World Cup stadium in Durban, would spread to other 2010 projects if their demands for more bonuses and safer working environment are not met by Monday.The union said it had served the construction sector’s employer body with a notice to go on strike after prolonged wage talks brokered by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration collapsed on Friday.

The strike could halt work on the World Cup infrastructure as well as the mass transit Gautrain high-speed rail project, power stations, an airport, a refinery, a coal terminal, hospitals, highways and mining projects.

“Its not just the World Cup stadiums that will be affected, we are talking about power stations, hospitals, roads and the like. It will last until the employers come to their senses and offer a 13 percent wage increase for one year.” Lesiba Seshoka, the NUM’s spokesman said.

The employers’ organisation said it would ask the courts to bar a strike, saying an agreement between the parties blocks the union from striking before the end of August this year.

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