Labour is fighting rationalisation in the motor industry that is causing a job loss bloodbath in South Africa
Glenda Daniels
A devastating loss of more than 2?000 jobs a month in South Africa’s metal industry is the cost of the industry’s move to become globally competitive.
The release of this shocking figure from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) comes as the union attempts to fight restructuring by companies such as Nampak, Goodyear, Iscor, Eskom and Denel.
This week Numsa is taking Samancor Ferrometals, a smelting company, to the Labour Court for dismissing 300 workers. Today about 3?000 Numsa members plan to go on strike at Goodyear in Port Elizabeth to protest against the loss of 400 jobs.
Last year 32?500 jobs were lost in the assembly industry; 39?500 in the component industry; 9?100 in the tyre industry; and 175?000 in the motor trade. Since 1987, 200?000 jobs have been shed in the metal industry.
In the past month alone 989 workers have been retrenched in the motor industry, including petrol attendants and panel beaters.
Rationalisation due to technological changes and attempts to become globally competitive is affecting workers across the world.
Last week Daewoo went on strike in Seoul after 1?751 workers were retrenched, while DaimlerChrysler announced that 20% of its labour force, or 26?000 workers worldwide, would lose their jobs.
The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) says that job losses are taking place because of rationalisation, re-engineering, technological changes and the restructuring of companies.
Numsa representative Dumisa Ntuli says pressure to become globally competitive is causing the job loss bloodbath. “Using international benchmarkings cannot work in South Africa because standards are set by international companies, and South Africa is a developing economy which cannot compete on the same level,” he says.
Seifsa economist Michael McDonald disputes Numsa’s 2?000 figure, saying that it is closer to 1?000 job losses a month, although he concedes that the employers’ figure could be lower because of “under-reporting to the bargaining council”.
McDonald says most of the job losses in the sector began as a fallout from the Asian crisis in the 1980s. “The biggest problem faced in South Africa is the composition of the workforce, which is still largely unskilled, with a lack of transferable skills.
“This is happening due to changes in technology, which have entailed capital-intensive methods. Even if you double export performance, you won’t get the increase in jobs that are needed.”
Goodyear, for instance, intends laying off 10% of its workers internationally. Ntuli says there is no rationale for the company to restructure in South Africa because its viability is not threatened here.
Justin Barnes, project manager at the industrial restructuring unit at the University of Natal-Durban, says that healthy growth is projected over the next few years.
Barnes says the metal industry has been hard hit because of competition. “Employers want a more on-call labour force, instead of a permanent workforce,” he says.
He says that many South African companies are now looking more closely at “quality performance”, which ensures meticulous investigations into how far behind we are in international standards on scrap rates, inventory systems, absenteeism of workers, output levels, time to deliver on contracts, and customer demands.