Roy Cokayne, Dineo Faku, Wiseman Khuzwayo and Nompumelelo Magwaza
Murderous violence in the mining sector strikes re-emerged yesterday as the winds of wildcat boycotts carried flares of labour dissent to the motoring industry, halting production at Toyota South Africa Motors’ Prospecton plant in Durban.
Reports of five more deaths in Rustenburg earlier this week, unconfirmed so far, have been underplayed, but National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Frans Baleni was quick in attributing the violence to employer obstinacy.
Police confirmed that one man was hacked to death near Rustenburg on Sunday night.
“Our fear is that the more dismissals happen, we’ll see the violence escalating. We are saying that a solution should be found because dismissals are not an option. People are attacked because they want to go to work,” Baleni said.
The reasons for the Toyota SA strike are not clear, coming as it did when some motor manufacturers are starting to feel the impact of the transport sector strike.
Leo Kok, a spokesman for Toyota SA, said yesterday that production at the plant was halted from the second shift on Monday because of a high level of absenteeism by workers. Kok said no production took place yesterday and none was planned for today.
Discussions between Toyota SA’s senior management and National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) representatives were ongoing in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
He was unable to specify the reasons for the stayaway, adding that Toyota SA was treating it as “an internal matter”.
Kok added that a meeting between plant workers and Numsa representatives was planned for today.
Castro Ngobese, a national spokesperson for Numsa, said the union’s national and KwaZulu-Natal leadership would be at Toyota’s plant today to “listen to the grievances of the workers and try and find an amicable solution”.
However, Ngobese was unable to provide clarity about the workers’ grievances.
The more than week-long transport sector strike is now causing disruptions in the motor industry.
Stewart Jennings, the president of the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers, said yesterday that the impact of the strike on component manufacturers was “patchy”, with a lot of problems around Gauteng, but little disruption in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
A disruption to automotive component supplies to the various manufacturing plants around the country could bring production to a standstill.
Alisea Chetty, a Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa spokeswoman, said the flow of production at its Silverton vehicle plant and Struandale engine plant in Port Elizabeth had been disrupted because of the impact on supplies of the transport sector strike.
Ford SA was working with its suppliers to prioritise the shipment of parts.
Guy Kilfoil, a BMW South Africa spokesman, said it had lost the production of 30 cars last week because axles had not be delivered on time, but had managed to catch up this lost production before the end of last week.
Denise van Huyssteen, a General Motors South Africa spokeswoman, said its material handling was outsourced and these workers were on strike, but contingency plans it had in place had enabled the company to maintain production.
Matt Gennrich, a Volkswagen South Africa spokesman, said contingency plans it made before the strike commenced had enable it to keep production running “with difficulty”.
Veralda Schmidt, a Nissan South Africa spokeswoman, said it had not had any disruptions to its operations because it had sufficient counter measures in place to ensure its operations were not interrupted.
Attempts to obtain comment from Mercedes-Benz South Africa were unsuccessful.
Agreements
Yesterday, Gold Fields said it had reached a formal agreement with NUM to implement a new operating model at its developing South Deep gold mine near Johannesburg.
The mining company said that now that the parties had agreed on the key aspects of the new operating model, South Deep had withdrawn the section 189 notice issued to the NUM on August 2.
Nick Holland, the chief executive of Gold Fields, said: “This agreement will define the future of South Deep and position it to become one of the most modern underground mechanised mines both locally and internationally.”
Baleni said the NUM and Petra Diamonds were in talks over a R21 500 salary demand by employees.
A Petra Diamonds spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that the company was in discussions, without giving details. She said that a limited number of employees went on a work stoppage at its mine.
Chamber
This week, wildcat strikes spread to junior gold producers Gold One International and Village Main Reef on Monday.
At Gold One an illegal strike was reported at its Cooke 4 shaft at the recently acquired Ezulwini mine, while Village reported an illegal strike at its Blyvooruitzicht mine.
Gold One said it had implemented a no work, no pay policy and had issued an ultimatum for employees to return to work.
“Should employees not cease illegal industrial action, Gold One will approach the Labour Court on an urgent basis to interdict the illegal action,” it said yesterday.
Village said yesterday that it might issue an ultimatum to striking employees depending on the outcome of a mass meeting scheduled to be held at the operation today.
Minerals Minister Susan Shabangu said yesterday: “Job losses are a cause of concern, we are a country which has a major challenge of unemployment and we cannot afford contribution to unemployment. From our side [as a department] we are asking how best to reposition the platinum sector to minimise job losses.”
However, despite intervention by management and the NUM, operations remained halted at Gold Fields’ Kloof-Driefontein Complex (KDC) West operation in Carletonville, where 15 000 employees were on illegal strike, and at the company’s Beatrix mine in the Free State, where 9 000 workers were on a wildcat strike.
Gold Fields shares fell 1.25 percent on the JSE to R1.06.
Blame
For its part, Cosatu and NUM have enlisted the SACP in laying blame for the Anglo American Platinum strike at the foot of mine bosses.
“Impala [Platinum] committed a grave error in offering an 18 percent increase to one category [miners] to the exclusion of the rest of the workers of Impala and, more seriously, outside the collective bargaining process.”
The two unions said expectations had been raised not by the NUM but by the employers, adding that the recent mineworkers’ strikes were a response to the employers’ miscalculations.
Meanwhile, fresh prospects for confrontation are brewing at Gold Fields’ KDC West and Beatrix mines after workers refused to leave their hostels by 11am yesterday as ordered by the firm.
Clothing and textiles
Yesterday did see the end of a months-long dispute in the clothing industry, with awards of 6.5 percent increases for metro-based workers and between 7.2 percent and 8.5 percent for non-metro workers, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Worker’s Union general secretary, Andre Kriel, confirmed.
The agreement, which was signed on Monday, would be backdated to September 1, which was the effective date from which increases were due.
In the latest agreement, which was signed by seven clothing manufacturing companies, wages for non-metro workers would be increased by about R45 a week. The agreement is cold comfort though for workers in the home textile sector who have entered a third week on strike after rejecting a R35 a week wage increase offer. Workers in this sector are demanding a R45 a week increase.