SA’s mining, automotive, steel, and construction industries are bracing for the worst as the country’s biggest union says it will strike from October 5 for better pay in the steel and engineering sector.
Employers in the sector have voted for a lockout should the strike by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) go ahead. A lockout entails an employer refusing employees access to the workplace, effectively rendering it impossible for any workers to perform their duties and get paid.
The Numsa strike comes as SA battles to deal with the effects of Covid-19 that has resulted in of about 1.4-million job losses and a 6.96% contraction in the economy in 2020.
Numsa which represents about 432,000 workers, recently announced the intended strike in a bid to secure above-inflation increases in the struggling steel and engineering sector.
The sector, which has been a victim of declining prices due to an increase in cheap imports, accounts for about 1.5% of GDP and employs about 190,000 people.
Numsa initially demanded a one-year, 15% pay increase across the board but in August revised it down to 8%, after declaring a dispute at the Metals Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC).
The union turned down Seifsa’s proposal for a 4.4% increase in 2021, and inflation-related increases in 2022 and 2023. The SA Reserve Bank forecasts inflation of 4.2% and 4.5% for 2022 and 2023, respectively, around the midpoint of its mandated 3%-6% target range.
Lucio Trentini, CEO of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa), the sector’s largest employer body that represents 18 organisations which employ about 170,000 workers, told Business Day on Tuesday that the industry was “well aware” of the plan of action that would unfold in the next week.
“We have already balloted Seifsa members across the board for the possibility of a lockout in the event it should become necessary. The result of the ballot is overwhelming support for that action should it become necessary,” he said.
But Trentini said Seifsa still believed a settlement was possible because “a strike is not in anyone’s best interests. We are suppliers to the mining industry, automotive components manufacturers, and the building industries, regrettably, this strike will have a knock-on effect on all major sectors of the economy which are reliant on the sector’s ability to continue manufacturing.”
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim on Tuesday said the strike would go ahead and that Covid-19 protocols would be observed.
Asked about the possibility of a lockout, Jim said: “A lockout is a lockout. When an employer locks us out it means he is accepting that he is not going to trade, he is closing his gates, nobody is allowed to operate, workers are out, it means that our strike would still be effective.”
He emphasised that the purpose of a strike is “to stop production and to ensure that an employer comes to the table and negotiate”.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana recently said the country has experienced significant de-industrialisation as the manufacturing sector, which contributed about 22% to GDP in the early 1990s, now accounts for about 12%.
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