Violent labor strikes expand to South Africa farms

[NewsCaster]

APFarmers spray water as they try and save around 18,000 empty fruit containers from burning after being set alight by farm workers in Wolseley, South Africa, on Nov. 14. Violent protests by farm workers have erupted in South Africa after weeks of unrest in the country's mining industry. The workers have been protesting their wages, saying they want a minimum wage of $17 a day. Currently, workers make about half that amount a day.APSouth African Police arrest farm workers after they went on a rampage in Wolseley, South Africa,on Nov. 14.AP reports -- Down a two-lane road, where slag heaps tower and miners'  shack homes crowd against each other, the labor unrest now gripping  South Africa first caught fire.

Mining companies here outside of Rustenburg, a city about 100  kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, saw workers walk off  the job and continue to demand higher wages, even after violence during  six weeks of strikes and a mass police shooting at one mine killed 46  people. The strikes recently spread to agriculture, South Africa's other  major economic engine, as day laborers burned farms and fought with  police Wednesday in violence that left at least one person dead and five  others injured.

NBCNews