World Cup organisers worry about delays from strike

By Alison Raymond

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - World Cup organisers will meet trade union officials to try to ensure a strike next week does not delay completion of stadiums beyond target.

About 50,000 workers from South Africa's biggest workers organisation, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), plan to start a strike to support pay demands from next Wednesday.

It is expected to halt work on stadiums for next June's soccer finals as well as power stations, hospitals, roads and a new high-speed urban rail project.

"We are going to be engaging with the unions ...to understand the issues because it is going to help us in our planning," said Irvin Khoza, chairman of the local organising committee.

"It is important that the stadiums are ready six months before the event ... we are confident that they will be ready on time," he told reporters.

Officials have said previously that the 10 stadiums for the World Cup, half of them new, will be delivered on target by December, although there have been some reports that the Green Point venue in Cape Town may be delayed into next year.

After the collapse of prolonged negotiations with the employers organisation, the NUM called the strike to support its demand for a 13 percent wage increase. Employers have refused to go beyond 10 percent.

(Additional reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng)