South Africa: Metal Workers stoppage end likely as unions consider lowering demands

Labor unions representing striking South African metalworkers have submitted a lower wage demand to employers, union representatives said on Sunday, to try to end the stoppage battering Africa’s most developed economy.

More than 200,000 metal and engineering workers launched a work stoppage at the start of the month demanding wage increases of between 12 to 15 percent and disrupting the supply of auto components and construction work at two crucial power stations. The stoppage, coming just weeks after the end of a crippling 5-month strike in the platinum industry, is the latest blow to South Africa’s ailing economy and has further unnerved investors impatient with waves of labor unrest.

Six striking unions have been meeting with employers this weekend in an effort to end the stoppage that has forced automaker Ford Motor Compnay and others to halt production at their South African plants.

The new proposal is for a 3-year agreement with annual increases of 8 or 10 percent depending on pay grade. The main National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has backed the proposal.

The unions are due to canvass their own members about the proposal on Monday, but any last-minute opposition from NUMSA would delay an end to the stoppage, as the dominant union in the strike.

As South Africa’s main manufacturing union, NUMSA had previously rejected an offer from employers for an increase of 10 percent followed by 9.5 percent in 2015 and 9 percent a year later.

South Africa’s government is concerned about the state of industrial relations, the finance minister said on Thursday. The country’s economy contracted in the first quarter of the year, dragged down by the 5-month platinum work stoppage that slashed output from the world’s 3 largest producers.

The metalworkers stoppage is likely to keep second-quarter growth depressed, although the central bank governor, Gill Marcus, has said she did not expect a recession.

Source: Reuters