Wage talks between the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and employers would resume today in an effort to end a strike by more than 200 000 workers at metal fabrication companies, Numsa head of collective bargaining Stephen Nhlapo said yesterday.
Another prolonged stoppage would hit car parts makers such as Dorbyl and dent investor confidence after a four-week strike last year by Numsa cost the industry around R21 billion.
The latest strike, which started on Tuesday, comes a week after platinum miners ended a crippling five-month stoppage that sent Africa’s most advanced economy into contraction in the first quarter.
Numsa is demanding wage increases of between 12 percent and 15 percent from more than 10 000 employers represented by the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa).
“We will be meeting for talks on Thursday night, the principle is a double-digit increase,” Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said. “We are dealing with workers who are earning as little as R5 400 a month; nobody can be able to live on that.”
US car maker Ford had no plans to pull out of South Africa, but the labour environment was a concern, Jeff Nemeth, the chief executive of the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa said. “This labour issue doesn’t help the global reputation of South Africa as a destination for foreign direct investment.
“We are continuing to operate and we will be fine through to the end of the week; then we’ll see what happens.”
Scaw Metals, which makes more than R6bn in annual revenue, said the strike would wipe out about R200 million worth of sales a week and as much R33m in profit weekly.
Numsa picketed at Eskom’s Johannesburg headquarters yesterday and hinted it might strike at the the utility in defiance of a Labour Court order.
Jim said the union would not allow Eskom to “hide behind the law”. However, for now its members would not down tools, but restrict their protest activity to picketing.
The strike has affected work at the Medupi and Kusile power plants, where construction and engineering firms were doing building work, Eskom said.
As annual wage negotiations get under way, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers union Sactwu said it had secured a 7.75 percent wage increase for members at carpet making firms. – Reuters