The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) stated on Friday that 120 retrenched workers of the Chinese-based Hisense electronics company would on Friday protest against retrenchments at the company’s premises in Midrand.
This comes after Hisense retrenched the 120 workers this week and closed its manufacturing division.
The company will now import all the products directly from China.
Numsa said the company claims to be under pressure to restructure operations because of insufficient profits and restructuring of its activities.
“The whole process of retrenchments is substantively unfair and unjustifiable.”
The union has accused the company of using South Africa as a dumping ground for cheap electronics products.
“Instead of the development and expansion of the manufacturing capacity, the plant will now be converted into a warehouse for cheaper products from China. This creates dependency in terms of skills and technology.”
Numsa added that the biggest problem is that South Africa is being used as a springboard to access the African market because of its infrastructural capacity.
The union said it seeks a review of management motive because the company has failed to explore prospects and opportunities for job creation.
“The company is making profits in South Africa and now wants to throw workers out of jobs all in the name of restructuring, competition, profits and rationalisation. With the unemployment levels increasing, we have genuine reasons to be concerned.” — I-Net Bridge