Johannesburg - The government could face rolling mass action if it does not revoke R50 billion in train contracts signed with foreign companies and give them to companies where the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) represents workers.
Numsa has given the government a month to comply with this demand, failing which, it says, employees of at least six companies and communities surrounding them will embark on mass action.
The union, which has 380 000 members, has been leading a campaign against Transnet since the rail and ports company awarded its R50bn contract for 1 064 locomotives to China South Rail, China North Rail, Bombardier in Montreal, Canada, and General Electric earlier this year.
Now Union Carriage and Wagon is facing the possibility of retrenching half its workforce.
Established in 1964, it manufactures passenger and freight trains.
It is now in the hands of a 100 percent black-owned company, Commuter Transport Engineering and its employees own a 10 percent stake.
The company’s finance executive, Dave Lewis, said that among other factors, the plant had been unproductive since March because no trains had been able to enter or leave the depot.
The reason was that the Ekurhuleni municipality had failed to replace about 5km of railway track stolen seven months ago.
Yesterday Numsa led at least 500 staff and residents from Duduza, KwaThema and Katlehong in a march protesting about the prospect of job losses at Union Carriage and Wagon.
The march also brought together the Democratic Left Front, the Workers and Socialist Party, unemployed members of the United Democratic Movement, and youth from areas near Nigel who are desperate for jobs.
Unemployment in South Africa stands at about 35 percent, with youth unemployment as high as 50 percent.
Numsa’s deputy general secretary, Karl Cloete, said yesterday’s march was the start of the union’s national campaign to bring workers out in large numbers to fight community issues.
He said if the government failed to respond to the memorandum handed to the national Department of Transport yesterday, workers from at least six companies in the sector would convene a national meeting about Transnet’s procurement processes.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters has been tasked with taking Numsa’s demands to the cabinet.
Transnet spokesman Mboniso Sigonyela said the contracts with the four foreign manufacturers included “stringent local content, skills development and training commitments”, as dictated by the company’s supplier development programme.