About 300 staff and cabin crew of South Africa's Nationwide airlines launched three-day strike on Friday afternoon, demanding five percent pay increase.

Solidarity spokesman Dirk Herman said the strike had " overwhelming participation" with about 97 percent of the union's 320-odd members taking part -- out of a total workforce of 1000.

The strike would include cabin crew, luggage handlers and ground staff.

The spokesman said: "We contacted them (management) but they are not prepared to negotiate."

Herman said the entry-level pay for cabin crew was 3900 rand ( about 620 dollars) per month. This reached a maximum of 5600 rand (888 dollars) after five years.

"We must benchmark ourselves against the rest of the industry. This is 45 percent lower than SAA," he added.

"If they succeed to get the planes in the air, the dispute is still not resolved. They will have unhappy employees and that means unhappy customers," he said.

The union was demanding a five percent salary increase plus another three percent increase in pension fund contributions. Nationwide is offering a four percent salary increase.

Nationwide's financial director Peter Griffiths said: " Essentially the strike only starts when the crew returns to their home base after the final flight of the day."

He said there had been no talks with trade union Solidarity, despite offers from the company to negotiate.

"We've offered. We've said we're quite happy to talk. They don' t appear to be acting in good faith. All they've done is send out press releases."

The strike was scheduled to end Sunday afternoon.

Source: Xinhua