The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) on Friday said that a one-day wage strike on June 27 in the steel industry would continue as planned.
The union said that this came after wage talks between itself and the Steel Engineering Industry Federation Of South Africa (Seifsa) failed.
The employer organisation has tabled a final wage offer of 5,8% for the lowest paid and 4,8% for the highest paid workers.
The union stated that it had moderated its demand to 10% for the lowest and 9% for the highest paid employees.
The wage talks cover 310 000 workers employed in the steel and engineering industry.
The parties will meet again on June 22.
The strike will be part of the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu’s) protest action against job losses.
According to Numsa it will formally register its dissatisfaction with low wage increases on June 27. As part of Cosatu’s action, Numsa will hand-over a separate memorandum to all Seifsa offices across the country.
“It has always been apparent that employers will give a final wage offer of 5,8%. The wage offer is not compatible with reality. The battle lines are drawn and the strike will change the mindset of employers,” the union said.
Numsa added that employers want the unions to remove all demands that add costs to the total wage bill.
“We cannot be blackmailed. They search for scapegoats and continue to blame the union rather than playing their role in a true successful manner. The employer’s primary duty is to manage workers and see to it that they progress in life by giving workers better wage increases without hesitation.” – I-Net Bridge