Amy Musgrave
Group Labour Editor
WHILE a nearly month-long strike in the metal and engineering sector has come to an end following a wage deal, the battle for workers is far from over as they now face possible retrenchments.
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) will sign a wage deal today that will have its lowest-paid members getting a 10 percent increase for the next three years. Numsa originally demanded 15 percent.
But it considers the deal a victory as it was adamant it would not settle for less than a double-digit increase for the bulk of its 220 000 striking members.
Employer groups had hoped to tie the workers to a three-year wage agreement with increases not exceeding 8 percent.
“We are pleased to inform the public and the country at large that the latest offer is a product of sweat and bitter struggles by our toiling workers for a living wage,” Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said in Johannesburg yesterday.
But that struggle will continue as some companies attached to the National Employers’ Association of SA (Neasa) have warned that there will be job cuts because they cannot afford to pay more than 8 percent. They have described the agreed increases as “suicide”.
“We will defend all our members… Most companies retrench because of greed. It’s not necessarily wages,” Numsa president Andrew Chirwa told reporters.
While workers lost nearly a month of wages and the strike cost the economy R300 million a day, according to employers, Numsa believes the outcome of the mass action strike is largely a victory.
Although the union did not get the ban on labour brokers it demanded, the sector’s national bargaining council will now employ labour broker compliance officers who will act on complaints of alleged abuse and non-compliance. They have also won an agreement that disciplinary action against workers would in future be administered by the secondary employer where the worker is based, rather than by the labour broker that placed them in their positions.
The union also will not have to give up its bargaining rights at company level as originally demanded by employers.
l Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the National Employers’ Association of SA did not accept the wage deal. “We are not happy... and will lock out the striking workers,” spokeswoman Sya van der Walt-Potgieter said.