Short-lived and a damp squib. That is the prediction by Loane Sharp, a labour economist at Adcorp, for the wage strike in the metals and engineering industry that started yesterday.
He said the strike by 220 000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) was just posturing because the union had lost a lot of power in Cosatu and in the economy.
“Unionisation outside mining is only 12 percent. It is falling in the private sector and participation rates in strikes are also falling. Intimidation and violence related to non-participation in strikes is rising,” he said.
Numsa got support from unexpected quarters, such as the National Union of Mineworkers, which in the past has accused Numsa of poaching its members, and public servants’ union Nehawu.
Cosatu said Numsa members faced intransigent employers who chose to put their profits before the workers and the future of the economy.
Numsa wants a 12 percent wage increase, a one-year agreement instead of three years, and a ban on labour brokers. The employers have offered a 7 percent rise for the lowest-paid workers and 6 percent for the other categories.
There were marches yesterday in Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London, Cape Town and George. Members marched to the head office of the Metals and Engineering Industry Bargaining Council to hand in a memorandum.
Speaking after receiving the memorandum, Kaizer Nyatsumba, the chief executive of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA, said the industry was deeply concerned about the damage the strike would do to the economy.
Each day away from work would cost the industry more than R300 million, equivalent to 0.014 percent of gross domestic product.