The struggling SA economy could suffer more harm if the largest metalworkers’ union carries out its threat to strike for higher pay in the frail steel and engineering sector.
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) on Tuesday called on its more than 360,000 members to prepare for a strike that could see workers in the automotive industry, component supplies, tyre sector, mining, aviation and all ports joining in solidarity.
The industrial action could put more strain on the struggling economy estimated to have lost R50bn in output due to recent violent unrest and looting that engulfed the economic powerhouses of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal after the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma.
Numsa, which initially demanded a one-year, 15% pay increase across the board, has revised its wage demand down to 8%, after declaring a dispute at the Metals and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) on Thursday last week.
This after the union turned down a wage proposal tabled a day earlier by the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa) for a 4.4% increase in 2021, a consumer price index (CPI) plus 0.5% rise in 2022 and CPI plus 1% in 2023. The Reserve Bank sees headline CPI averaging 4.3% in 2021, 4.2% in 2022 and 4.5% in 2023.
On Monday, Seifsa, the sector's largest employer body representing 18 employer organisations that employ about 190,000 workers, declared a counter dispute against Numsa over its refusal to accept the proposed wage hike deal.
Seifsa CEO Lucio Trentini told Business Day on Monday that a counter dispute is a mechanism in which an employer declares a dispute after a union has declared a dispute, “so that in the event Numsa elects to go on strike, which we hope not, then employers will have a right to implement a lockout”.
“It’s basically a mechanism to keep a balance on what could happen on the union’s side and on the employer’s side. It’s all about keeping a balance of power,” he said.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim called on the union’s members to “ready themselves for the mother of all strikes if employers refuse to settle this round of negotiations”.
Jim said Numsa was discussing with other sectors to join its strike in solidarity with its demands in the steel and engineering sector, which Seifsa has said is still very much “in the throes of deep distress” made worse by declining steel prices due to an increase in cheap imported steel.
Jim said talks were under way for workers in the road freight industry, bus drivers, Transnet workers and those working for the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), those in the “aviation sector and all airlines and workers in all the ports” to join Numsa's strike action.
“We can only succeed if we are united and we fight with a common vision. Our proposal is an 8% increase across the board for the first year and CPI + 2% improvement factor for the following two years. If CPI + 2% falls below 6%, employers must offer 6% or reopen negotiations.”
Jim said Numsa was left with no choice but to declare a deadlock when employers were not prepared to move on their proposal. He said that parallel to the dispute processes the union is prepared to negotiate to settle this dispute.
If employers do not revise their wage offer to one acceptable by Numsa, the union “will be left with no other option ... but to serve employers with a 48-hour notice for an indefinite national strike until all our members’ demands are met”. Jim said Numsa has invited various employer associations into bilateral meetings in an effort to put the negotiations to bed.
Trentini said on Tuesday that it was “premature to be talking about strike action” when Numsa had declared its dispute last week. He said parties will hold a meeting on Tuesday next week to decide how to break the deadlock and reach a deal.
“The possibility of industrial action, we don’t take it lightly, hence we are already putting measures in place to respond to that. But I'm confident, given our history, that a resolution will be found,” said Trentini.
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