The strike by 220 000 workers in the metal and engineering sectors is starting to hit the motor manufacturing industry, with production at four of the seven local vehicle plants either severely disrupted or halted because of component shortages.
Production at the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa plant in Silverton in Pretoria was stopped yesterday. Production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles at the Toyota South Africa Motors plant in Prospecton in Durban is set to stop from today.
General Motors South Africa (GMSA) halted operations at its Port Elizabeth plant on July 3, and last week BMW South Africa cut output by a third from three to two shifts.
Only Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) and Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) indicated that their plants were operating normally.
Nissan South Africa did not respond to questions.
Negotiations continued yesterday between the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) in a bid to end the strike that entered its third week today.
Numsa at the weekend rejected Seifsa’s final offer.
Seifsa indicated that the mandate from its council was that should Numsa not accept the final settlement offer, the the offer would be withdrawn.
It is believed to have offered a three-year package with a 10 percent wage increase this year, 9.5 percent next year and 9 percent in the third year. Numsa is demanding a 10 percent wage increase in a one-year deal.
Nico Vermeulen, the director of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa), said that the strike had affected only 15 component suppliers. Original equipment manufacturers had implemented contingency plans to keep production going.
However, he said that unless the strike was resolved this week, the implications for the motor manufacturing industry would become progressively more serious in terms of compromising vehicle production and exports.
He added that if the strike was resolved this week, the immediate and direct impact would be manageable but the indirect impact meant it would continue to reflect badly on South Africa’s reputation as a reliable supplier to international markets.
Mary Willemse, a spokeswoman for Toyota SA, confirmed yesterday that two major production lines at its Durban plant that produced the Corolla, Hilux and Fortuner models would stop production from today, affecting more than 7 000 workers.
She said the company was confident that the production stoppage would not affect its domestic sales at this stage, but she declined to discuss any possible impact on export sales.
Rella Bernardes, a spokeswoman for Ford SA, said that production at the company’s Silverton plant had been suspended because of component shortages, affecting about 2 200 workers.
Bernardes said workers would undergo training from tomorrow if the strike was not resolved. Ford’s dealer network was fully stocked, and an export shipment this week was still on schedule, but future shipments would be disrupted if the strike continued.
Denise van Huyssteen, a GMSA spokeswoman, said that it had now lost eight days of production because of component supply shortages.
Guy Kilfoil, a BMW SA spokesman, said that limited rotational shift production would continue at its Rosslyn, Pretoria plant this week, with production plans for next week to be analysed on Friday.
Arno van der Merwe, the chief executive and vice-president of manufacturing at MBSA, said that production was continuing at its East London plant but supply lines were becoming critical due to the strike. He urged the parties involved to find a solution as soon as possible.
Matt Gennrich, a VWSA spokesman, said the German marque’s plant in Uitenhage near Port Elizabeth was operating normally and the situation was being assessed daily.