DaimlerChrysler denies there is a government-company strategy to deal with the motor strike
Glenda Daniels
DaimlerChrysler’s chairperson has crushed union suspicions that the government advised the company to threaten to withdraw from South Africa to stop the protracted automobile strike.
Union insiders said they suspected that DaimlerChrysler, “being friends” of the government, was urged to make the threat to end the strike.
But the company’s chairperson, Christoph Kopke, denies this: “That is fascinating that people believe there is a government-company strategy on how to deal with the strike. There has been zero contact with the government on this matter.”
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s (Numsa) Dumisa Ntuli says: “These threats are attempts to demoralise the workers and … to destroy unions in the process.”
After a two-week crippling strike in the automobile industry by about 21000 workers, Kopke warned that unless workers went back to work this week production would be transferred from South Africa to Germany.
German workers said they would not provide scab labour for DaimlerChrysler should it carry out its threat. “We are not able to produce more C-class cars and we would not agree to overtime if the company asks us,” said Erich Klemm, chairperson of the general works council of DaimlerChrysler, in a letter to Numsa.
The strike started after wage talks deadlocked two weeks ago. The union has come down from its 12% demand to 10% but employers have not shifted from their 7,5% offer. The strike has cost about R5-million a day in lost wages, and the overall cost to the economy is about R200-million a week.
On Monday mediation by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration bore no fruit and by the end of the week Numsa and employers were locked in direct negotiations to break the impasse.
The government is concerned about the effect a protracted strike would have on the economy. “The threat by DaimlerChrysler to pull out of the country and the reciprocal threat by workers to embark on an indefinite strike is of grave concern to us because instead of contributing towards finding a solution it only serves to harden attitudes,” says director general of the Department of Labour Rams Ramashia.
“This kind of posturing is not helpful in that it delays the resolution of the impasse. Workers have already lost millions of rands in wages while employers have lost millions in lost production. This is not good news for our fragile economy.”
The Democratic Alliance called on President Thabo Mbeki “to flex his muscles at this weekend’s tripartite alliance conference and show once and for all that he will not stand back and allow unions to ride roughshod over South Africa’s economic prospects.
“Numsa’s reaction to DaimlerChrysler South Africa’s warning that the Stuttgart head office could cancel the more than R1-billion export order if the actions by workers continue is yet another example of selfish, self-interested trade union priorities,” the DA statement read.
Labour analyst and academic Professor Eddie Webster says: “Most of the strikes are about wages, but there are broader issues behind this, for instance, labour’s disenchantment with the government’s broad economic policies. Labour is flexing its muscles at the moment. But there will be no divorce in the [tripartite] alliance.”
He points to surveys on worker support for the alliance one done in 1994 with 75% support and the other in 1999, with 74% support. “This is not much of a difference, so for historical reasons the alliance will be kept,” Webster says. However, the “Achilles heel of labour” is the extent to which it has allowed the African National Congress to poach its leadership.
“But clearly the honeymoon is over. Labour is the only sector in the broad social movement with the capacity to make an impact on the devastation that the liberalisation of the economy is causing,” says Webster.
Ntuli says it would be difficult for Numsa to accept employers’ 7,5% offer as workers’ real wages have remained the same over the past three years.
But while the motor strike may be settled soon, other strikes are pending. This week 12 public sector unions, representing 500000 public servants, declared a deadlock with the government. Unions represented by the Federation of Democratic Unions of South Africa, the Public Servants Association and those aligned to Cosatu will consult their members to decide whether to go on strike next week.
The unions are demanding a 7,5% increase for the highest-paid workers, a 9% increase for lowest-paid employees, and a R850 once-off bonus. The government has offered a 5,5% increase and a three-year wage agreement linked to inflation.
A nationwide strike is looming in the tyre and rubber industry after Numsa rejected the Tyre Employer Association’s 7% wage increase offer. If strike action proceeds it will involve close to 6 000 workers.
A strike by the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union in Gauteng and the Western Cape has been set for Tuesday, after wage talks deadlocked on Thursday. Anti-privatisation protests start next week in different regions. This will culminate in a nationwide stayaway by Cosatu at the end of this month.