Johannesburg - The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) is on a collision course with the motor manufacturing and retail motor industries over a new wage agreement.
This follows Numsa revealing yesterday that demands agreed on at its national bargaining conference, and to be put forward in different sectors, included a 20 percent wage increase and one-year agreement.
Read: 'Capitalism to blame' for job bloodbath - Numsa
Other Numsa demands included a R5 000 a month housing allowance and medical benefits to be paid on the basis of 80 percent by employers and 20 percent by employees.
Numsa’s demands have led to the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI) calling for an emergency leadership summit of the five negotiating parties to the motor industry bargaining council.
The disclosure of Numsa’s demands came a day after Johan van Zyl, the chairman of Toyota SA and chief managing officer of Toyota Motors Europe, stressed South Africa’s automotive industry had to remain world competitive, not only in terms of wages and productivity, but also regarding labour stability.
“I cannot stress enough the importance of engagement (and) the need to employ dispute resolution as the first and ultimately only line of defence rather than resorting to strike action as the solution,” he said.
Thomas Schäfer, the managing director of Volkswagen SA (VWSA), warned last week that South Africa’s automotive industry was at a crossroads and that its international reputation would be completely destroyed if this year’s collective bargaining resulted in strikes such as the industry experienced in 2013 and 2010.
Almost nine weeks of back-to-back strikes in 2013 by various sectors in the motor industry and automotive value chain resulted in the loss of production of 58 000 vehicles worth a total of about R11.6 billion.
Karl Cloete, the deputy general secretary of Numsa, said yesterday that living standards were crashing for those who could keep a job because of the sharp annual increase in the prices of basic necessities.
“It means that in real terms all those on fixed incomes are substantially poorer than a year ago. This is making workers angry and that is why we are insisting on real increases and not just amounts that reduce the drop in income they have already suffered,” Cloete said.
Jakkie Olivier, the chief executive of the RMI, said the summit on May 31 between the RMI, Numsa, National Employers Association of SA, Fuel Retailers Association and Motor Industry Staff Association would “explore a way forward given Numsa’s demands”.
Olivier said Numsa’s demands included the establishment of a megabargaining council across the broader motor industry, including vehicle manufacturers and oil companies.
He said such a megabargaining council would not work because the client base and finances of the various businesses were totally different.
“There are tough times ahead. Hopefully sanity will prevail in the end. The economy is down and… we support job creation, but the wrong impression is being created among the workforce with demands that are not achievable,” he said.
Attempts to obtain comment from the Automobile Manufacturers Employers Organisation were unsuccessful.
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