Business Day 5/9/01
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THE two-week strike by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) in the tyre and rubber industry will not affect the car manufacturing industry in the short term, the Automobile Employers’ Organisation (Ameo) said yesterday.

Ameo spokesman Harry Gazendam said tyre supplies to the industry were still adequate but alternative arrangements were being made should the strike become protracted.

“We rely on the good judgment of the parties to reach an agreement soon, ” he said.

Numsa will announce the outcome of a national shop stewards’ meeting today, which will decide whether to stage a sympathy strike with workers in the tyre and rubber industry.

Earlier this week the union made a call to its members in the car manufacturing industry to consider participating in a sympathy strike after efforts to resolve the impasse between the union and the tyre and rubber employers’ association over the weekend failed.

Numsa, however, claims that the strike has already affected the car manufacturing industry. “If the situation is not solved in three weeks’ time, car manufacturers will have to source tyres overseas, ” said Dumisa Ntuli, Numsa spokesman.

He called on car manufacturers to put pressure on the tyre and rubber manufacturers.

Employers in the sector are offering a 7, 5% wage increase while Numsa is demanding 8, 5%.

The tyre sector’s employers’ association could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Numsa’s twoweek strike at electrical appliances manufacturer Defy is still continuing, with the union demanding a service allowance.

The company maintains that the issue should be the “subject of negotiation at a national level and not bargained at plant level”.

Roy Lorentz, director of human resources at Defy, said the “issue was recently the subject of an interim interdict in the Labour Court, which ruled in the company’s favour”.

“This interdict was, however, not confirmed at a subsequent Labour Court hearing, thereby enabling Numsa to embark on protected strike action,” said Lorentz.

He said production had been affected but “the company has had contingency plans in place, which have minimised the impact of strike action”.

The parties will meet today at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

In another development, the state attorneys are entering day three of their strike for higher wage increases.

Justice department spokesman Paul Setsetse said yesterday the strike by state attorneys was “unnecessary”. He said the department did not have the jurisdiction to involve itself in salary issues. “Salary issues fall under the ambit of the central bargaining chamber and we cannot fix salaries outside of this process”, he said.

The department said the nowork-no-pay policy would apply to those attorneys who failed to report for work.

Daily Dispatch 5/9/01
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GRAHAMSTOWN – Numsa motor industry workers yesterday said they would not be engaging in a solidarity strike in support of their counterparts in the tyre industry, despite calls for national solidarity.

About 5 000 tyre industry workers have entered their second week of strikes for a 10 percent wage increase after rejecting a 7, 5 percent increase previously offered by employers.

A Numsa shopsteward at DaimlerChrysler in East London, Sebenzile Mzini, said he was not aware of a solidarity strike by motor workers.

Mzini said: “We have not yet received communication from our national office about a solidarity strike with the auto industry workers. ” He did however say that the issue might be discussed at today’s national shopstewards’ meeting in Johannesburg.

Meanwhile, Continental Tyres spokesperson Piet Swart said his company had already lost two-thirds of its production. “There is also the threat of losing all the export contracts if the strike continues next week. ” He said it was difficult to say when the strike would be resolved but “the sooner the better”. He said hiring casual or scab labour was difficult because tyre manufacture was a skilled job that required lots of training.Firestone spokesperson Hendrik Eckard said on Friday they would be meeting with Numsa for further negotiations on wages. Eckard said: “The duration of the strike depends on Numsa. We are still awaiting a response from them on a proposal of 7, 5 percent we made on Friday last week. ” He said the strike was badly affecting production. – ECN

Irene Louw and Thabang Mokopanele
Business Day 4/9/01
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THE car manufacturing industry is bracing itself for a possible showdown with the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) after the union asked its members to stage a sympathy strike in solidarity with workers in the tyre and rubber industry.

The two-week tyre strike comes shortly after car workers ended a three-week strike which cost the industry millions of rands in lost revenue.

Following another breakdown in pay talks over the weekend, Numsa said the strike would “continue for an indefinite period as the New Tyre Manufacturing Employers failed to reciprocate positively to the union’s wage demands”, Numsa spokesman Dumisa Ntuli said.

Numsa wants a 10% wage increase across the board while the employer is offering 7,5%.

The Mineworkers Union-Solidarity is also likely to join the strike after yesterday’s receipt of a strike certificate by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

About 3000 Numsa members are also on strike at electrical appliance company Defy in Durban, Ladysmith and East London.

Ntuli said: “The (Defy) strike was triggered by the failure of the company to continue paying a cent for service allowance to all workers.”

Meanwhile, there is still no move towards a settlement In public service wage negotiations. The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, the Democratic Nurses’ Organisation of SA and the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union declared a dispute in the Public Service Collective Bargaining Chamber last week.

Nehawu spokesman Moloantoa Molaba said: “We’ve started with a mandating process.”

Union members will decide during this process on whether to strike. The Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union (Hospersa) began demonstrating last week in protest against the state’s wage offer.

Hospersa’s demonstrations will end today, “after which the mandating structures will decide on what further action should be taken”, the union said.

The issues in dispute include pay progression, the employer’s 5,5% offer against the unions’ 9% demand on a sliding scale, with the highest earning 7,5%.

Meanwhile, the strike by state attorneys affiliated to the Public Servants Association has had a marginal effect on court proceedings across the country.

The justice department said 50% of state attorneys took part in the strike, while the remainder went on a “limited strike”, meaning they reported for work but did not take on extra work.

There were no disruptions In the Pretoria and Cape High courts and the Johannesburg Magistrate and High courts operated normally.

The strike was expected to disrupt all litigation cases to which the state was a party.

Kaizer Kganyago, head of communications in the justice department, said there were no major disruptions as the strike affected only civil cases.

“A committee has been set up to look at restructuring the salaries of legal professionals and other officials of the department of justice,” Kganyago said.

Daily Dispatch 4/9/01
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EAST LONDON – DaimlerChrysler South Africa (DCSA) has entered into an agreement with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) to catch up on lost production.

DCSA spokesman Lulama Chakela said the recovery programme had been approved by the workers.

A spokesman for the shop stewards said the workers would work overtime to recover production lost during last month’s three-week strike.

This will entail working on Saturdays as well, he added.

The target is to catch up on the lost production by the end of the year.

The backlog is about 3600 vehicles, including C-class Mercedes-Benzes and Colt bakkies.

Chakela said that, in terms of the catch-up plan, the plant would work two extended shifts of nine hours each from Monday to Friday, and two shifts of seven hours on some Saturdays.

“We have received full support for the recovery programme from our workers and are optimistic that, if everything runs according to plan, we will have fully recovered the backlog by the end of this year,” said DCSA management board member for manufacturing Günter Butschek.

Auto workers throughout the country embarked on a strike after wage talks deadlocked.

The strike ended after intervention by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration which made fresh wage proposals that were accepted by both the workers and management.

Initially the workers had demanded a 15percent across-the-board increase while the employers had offered seven percent.

The parties finally agreed on a nine percent increase.DCSA has an agreement with the workers, the Siyaphambile agreement, whereby the two parties commit themselves to smooth production to meet the overseas market contracts. – DDR