Business
South Africa: Industrial action cripples auto industry
The auto companies are offering a 6 percent increase.
The South African central bank has warned about the inflationary impact of high wage settlements on consumer prices, however, workers are stretched financially and often have several dependents.
Labor unrest also looms in the mining sector with unions seeking pay rises of up to 150 percent, which companies say they can ill afford as metal prices slump.
Industrial unrest in the mining industry has slowed economic growth, hit the rand currency and led to sovereign credit downgrades.
President Zuma and his ANC party have faced heavy criticism for their handling of last year’s wave of wildcat strikes in the mines, which also dented growth and alarmed investors.
Elias Kubeka, national motor sector coordinator for NUMSA, said the auto industry strike was “very well supported and all of the factories, 100 percent, are shut down”.
Toyota said 80 percent of its 8,000-strong South African workforce had not turned up for work, while Guy Kilfoil, a spokesman for BMW in South Africa, said that the industrial action was costing it 345 cars a day.
Wages in the auto sector range from about US$850 a month for basic workers to US$1,800 a month for qualified technicians.
Source: Reuters
