While Numsa this week lowered its wage increase demand, motor industry employers have refused to budge
Glenda Daniels
Striking motor manufacturing workers are about to decide whether to accept intervention by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to reach agreement on a wage deadlock.
About 21 000 National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) motor manufacturing members went on strike on Monday and about 5 000 Highveld Steel Numsa members embarked on strike action after wage talks deadlocked.
“The union is busy consulting its members in the different regions whether to accept the CCMA’s offer to intervene in the motor strike,” says Numsa’s Dumisa Ntuli.
Numsa on Thursday reduced its wage increase demand from 15% to 12% but says employers have not shifted from their 7,5% offer. Members of the Oil, Chemical, General and Allied Workers’ Union (Ocgawu) said the offer was “realistic” and went back to work on Thursday.
The Automobile Manufacturing Employers’ Organisation (Ameo) has warned that should the strike continue it would cost the country dearly in foreign exchange due to export contracts not being met and massive losses of daily revenue. Toyota, BMW, Nissan, Delta, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen plants are affected around South Africa.
Ameo has said R200-million a week would be lost in foreign exchange, while locally it predicts that there would be a loss in car sales as about 2 100 fewer cars will be manufactured each day of the strike.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says: “The demand for a 12% increase is just a drop in
the ocean, which we believe the employer can afford to pay, taking into account the fact that car sales have gone up by 12,5%. Workers are angry that the motor industry is performing well but there are no incentives to boost their productive capacity.
“The overwhelming support for the strike is an indication that workers are serious about improving their salaries. It is also proof that workers cannot accept wage traps. They are also parents entitled to equitable wages that will enable them to live healthy and productive lives.”
Numsa says the 5 000 strikers at Highveld Steel have succeeded in getting management to increase its wage offer from 6,8% to 8%. The company has also increased its housing subsidy by 5%. But the strike is set to continue with other issues still outstanding, including a R500 risk allowance, overtime payment and 20 days’ additional leave for shop stewards to attend union activities.
Unions are going into full battle in about two weeks when a nationwide strike by Cosatu over the privatisation of state assets takes place.
The unions are claiming that more than Cosatu’s nearly two million members will participate as the strike is likely to be supported by independent unions and federations.
In response to fears that the national strike will scare off potential investors, leading to a drop in the rand, Cosatu says in a statement: “If the government wants to stop the strike, it should start negotiating seriously.”