Protesting workers from petrol stations, car dealers and panel beaters warned their employers on Tuesday to prepare for a long battle in their campaign for better wages and allowances.
Mthuthuzeli Tom, the president of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), said during a march to the offices of the Fuel Retailers Association (FRA) and the Retail Motor Industry (RMI) that it is better for Numsa’s members to suffer now than to keep on suffering.
”This industry is the only industry that still lives in the apartheid era and adheres to the apartheid system,” Tom said.
The union said the RFA and RMI have shown ”disrespect” to the union’s wage demands and acted in bad faith in bargaining arrangements.
Reading the union’s memorandum, Numsa regional secretary Jack Bezuidenhout said: ”The ‘no wage’ offer attitude of the industry is disgusting and stinking. It will seriously contribute to workers’ misery, impoverishment and grinding poverty.”
Last week Numsa told journalists that the FRA and the RMI had not made a wage offer to workers.
The union said it wants actual increases in the wage package of the motor retail workers.
Other demands include a wage increase of 10% for grade seven and eight and 12% for grades one and six, as well as a night-shift allowance of 20% and an afternoon-shift allowance of 10%. — Sapa