Glenda Daniels
Mail and Guardian 17/8/01
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DaimlerChrysler denies there is a government-company strategy to deal with the motor strike

DaimlerChrysler’s chairperson has crushed union suspicions that the government advised the company to threaten to withdraw from South Africa to stop the protracted automobile strike.

Union insiders said they suspected that DaimlerChrysler, “being friends” of the government, was urged to make the threat to end the strike.

But the company’s chairperson, Christoph Kopke, denies this: “That is fascinating that people believe there is a government-company strategy on how to deal with the strike. There has been zero contact with the government on this matter.”

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s (Numsa) Dumisa Ntuli says: “These threats are attempts to demoralise the workers and. . . to destroy unions in the process.”

After a two-week crippling strike in the automobile industry by about 21000 workers, Kopke warned that unless workers went back to work this week production would be transferred from South Africa to Germany.

German workers said they would not provide scab labour for DaimlerChrysler should it carry out its threat. “We are not able to produce more C-class cars and we would not agree to overtime if the company asks us,” said Erich Klemm, chairperson of the general works council of DaimlerChrysler, in a letter to Numsa.

The strike started after wage talks deadlocked two weeks ago. The union has come down from its 12% demand to 10% but employers have not shifted from their 7,5% offer. The strike has cost about R5-million a day in lost wages, and the overall cost to the economy is about R200-million a week.

On Monday mediation by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration bore no fruit and by the end of the week Numsa and employers were locked in direct negotiations to break the impasse.

The government is concerned about the effect a protracted strike would have on the economy. “The threat by DaimlerChrysler to pull out of the country and the reciprocal threat by workers to embark on an indefinite strike is of grave concern to us because instead of contributing towards finding a solution it only serves to harden attitudes,” says director general of the Department of Labour Rams Ramashia.

“This kind of posturing is not helpful in that it delays the resolution of the impasse. Workers have already lost millions of rands in wages while employers have lost millions in lost production. This is not good news for our fragile economy.”

The Democratic Alliance called on President Thabo Mbeki “to flex his muscles at this weekend’s tripartite alliance conference and show once and for all that he will not stand back and allow unions to ride roughshod over South Africa’s economic prospects.

“Numsa’s reaction to DaimlerChrysler South Africa’s warning that the Stuttgart head office could cancel the more than R1-billion export order if the actions by workers continue is yet another example of selfish, self-interested trade union priorities,” the DA statement read.

Labour analyst and academic Professor Eddie Webster says: “Most of the strikes are about wages, but there are broader issues behind this, for instance, labour’s disenchantment with the government’s broad economic policies. Labour is flexing its muscles at the moment. But there will be no divorce in the [tripartite] alliance.”

He points to surveys on worker support for the alliance ñ one done in 1994 with 75% support and the other in 1999, with 74% support. “This is not much of a difference, so for historical reasons the alliance will be kept,” Webster says. However, the “Achilles heel of labour” is the extent to which it has allowed the African National Congress to poach its leadership.

“But clearly the honeymoon is over. Labour is the only sector in the broad social movement with the capacity to make an impact on the devastation that the liberalisation of the economy is causing,” says Webster.

Ntuli says it would be difficult for Numsa to accept employers’ 7,5% offer as workers’ real wages have remained the same over the past three years.

But while the motor strike may be settled soon, other strikes are pending. This week 12 public sector unions, representing 500000 public servants, declared a deadlock with the government. Unions represented by the Federation of Democratic Unions of South Africa, the Public Servants Association and those aligned to Cosatu will consult their members to decide whether to go on strike next week.

The unions are demanding a 7,5% increase for the highest-paid workers, a 9% increase for lowest-paid employees, and a R850 once-off bonus. The government has offered a 5,5% increase and a three-year wage agreement linked to inflation.

A nationwide strike is looming in the tyre and rubber industry after Numsa rejected the Tyre Employer Association’s 7% wage increase offer. If strike action proceeds it will involve close to 6 000 workers.

A strike by the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union in Gauteng and the Western Cape has been set for Tuesday, after wage talks deadlocked on Thursday. Anti-privatisation protests start next week in different regions. This will culminate in a nationwide stayaway by Cosatu at the end of this month.

Daily Dispatch 17/8/01
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JOHANNESBURG – The mass action at South Africa’s automobile manufacturing industry will continue today with no end in sight.

“The strike is going to continue until they offer us an increase which is above slave wages,” National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) spokesman Dumisa Ntuli said last night.

He said further negotiations to end the wage dispute between Numsa and the Automobile Manufacturers Employers Organisation (Ameo) had not been planned.

Ameo spokesman Dave Kirby confirmed that no concrete plans had been made for meetings between the two parties.

Thousands of Numsa members downed tools last Monday at BMW, Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler, Delta, Ford, Nissan and Toyota across the country.

According to Kirby, only Volkswagen has been operating as a complete plant while the other companies have been concentrating their efforts on sustaining export operations.

On Wednesday during negotiations under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, Numsa dropped its pay rise demand from 12 to 10 percent.

However, the companies stuck to their 7,5 percent wage increase offer and said they would pay additional once-off bonus of R500 to each worker.

This was rejected by Numsa.

Ntuli accused the employers of being the reason for the failed negotiations.

*Negotiations on a wage increase dispute between labour unions and their employers in the tyre and rubber industry will continue today in Port Elizabeth.

New Tyre Manufacturing Employers Association spokesman Basil Smith said that “hopefully by noon on Friday we will have an idea on where we are going”.

MWU-Solidarity wants an 8,5 percent pay rise and Numsa is demanding 10 percent.

The employers are offering an effective seven percent wage increase.

*Numsa president Mthuthuzeli Tom will lead DaimlerChrysler striking workers on a march to the offices of the Border-Kei Chamber of Business (BKCB) today.

Numsa spokesman Sebenzile Mzini said the march would leave from the DaimlerChrysler plant on the West Bank and was expected to reach the BKCB offices in St George’s Road at midday.

BKCB director Les Holbrook said he was unaware of the march.

However, Numsa vowed to go ahead even if the chamber was not aware of it. – Sapa-DDR

Vernon Wessels
Business Report 17/8/01
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Striking workers have lashed out at fears by economists that widespread strikes crippling a number of industries could damage investor sentiment and put pressure on inflation. Workers maintain they have not enjoyed the benefits of increased productivity.

Dumisa Ntuli, the spokesperson of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, said it would be wrong to accuse workers of harming the economy when they were already suffering the effects of high employment, poverty and increasing inequality.

“During the period 1998 to 1999, output in the motor vehicle industry rose by 13 percent. The number of workers in that same period fell by close to 1 000,” said Ntuli.

“Labour productivity mirrors this. [It] rose by 14,3 percent between those two years while the unit labour cost fell by 11,8 percent. But employers have been shy to pass on these benefits to workers.”

Dawie Roodt, an economist with PLJ Financial Services, said although productivity had increased significantly over the past few years, it came off a low base.

“The increase in productivity was the painful price we had to pay for our integration into the globalised economy,” said Roodt.

South Africa recorded 6,2 percent growth in productivity last year,4,1 percent growth the previous year and 5 percent growth in 1998, while unit costs of labour increased 2,3 percent last year.

“We should capitalise on the gains we made in productivity and still try to become more competitive,” Roodt said.

Vincent Malunga, an economist with Sanlam Asset Management, said the strikes had the potential to derail South Africa’s positive inflation outlook as a result of a depreciation in the rand. Tony Twine, an economist at Econometrix, said that bowing to wage demands much higher than inflation could trickle through the entire economy as workers in other sectors could be sparked into taking similar action.

Rudolf Gouws, the chief economist of Rand Merchant Bank, said South Africa’s image as a reliable exporter in a competitive global market had been damaged.

“Exports make up a large portion of wealth and job creation and any loss in this sector would be felt much more painfully than five or 10 years ago,” said Gouws.