Business
South Africa: More labor unrest as NUMSA to begin stoppage July 1
South African Workers at vehicle assembly plant. PHOTO/Volkswagen South Africa
More than 220,000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the country’s biggest labor group, will lay down their wages next month, crippling steelmaking and engineering companies.
The union’s National Executive Committee “has agreed to the decision from our members to embark on an indefinite work stoppage, beginning July 1,” NUMSA Deputy General Secretary Karl Cloete told reporters in Johannesburg today. “This was not an easy decision, but a painful one, not taken with a pinch of salt, since the principle of no work, no pay will be held by the greedy bosses.”
South Africa is reeling from a five-month stoppage by more than 70,000 platinum workers that ended this week, costing them and the world’s 3 largest producers of the metal more than 34 billion rand (US$3.4 billion) in lost revenue and wages. The deadlock pushed the economy into contraction in the first 3 months of this year as mining output plunged.
Companies to be affected by the NUMSA stoppage include the Industrial Development Corporation’s Scaw Metals, Bell Equipment Ltd., and Reunert Ltd.’s CBI.
While the stoppage could be settled within a week, the union is prepared for a longer labor action, Cloete said. “When we say we will not be starved into submission,” we mean exactly that, he said.
The union represents more than 330,000 workers, with over half of those employed in metals and engineering, according to NUMSA. Wage talks between employer groups in those industries and the union started 3 months ago under the auspices of the Metal and Engineering Bargaining Council. They ended in deadlock yesterday.
The companies have tabled a 3-year deal including increases of as much as 8 percent in the first year, Seifsa said. Unions including NUMSA lowered their demands to 12 percent this week from 15 percent. South Africa’s inflation rate was 6.6 percent in May.
