The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa) on Tuesday struck a conciliatory tone with thousands of workers on strike for more pay, saying a lockout wouldn’t resolve matters and assured them that a deal would be reached.
“A strike and a lockout is not going to resolve the dispute for us, we understand that,” Seifsa CEO Lucio Trentini told members of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) who marched to the employer body’s headquarters in Johannesburg’s CBD to hand over a list of demands.
“Agreements are concluded at the negotiating table and not on the streets or on the back of a strike,” Trentini said. “I have listened very carefully to each and every one of the demands. We will seriously consider them and we will reach an agreement.”
Numsa, the country’s largest union with about 432,000 members, and Seifsa, which represents 18 organisations employing 170,000 workers are deadlocked over pay after a three-year wage agreement ended in June.
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 Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC).
The union rejected 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. The union is demanding consumer price index (CPI) plus 2% for 2022 and 2023.
Speaking to Business Day later on Tuesday, Trentini said: “We have to rise above what happened today. We have already reached out to Numsa, in the next couple of hours we will setting a meeting with them to work out the sticking points in order to resolve the strike.”
Numsa national spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola told Business Day that the first day of the strike was a success, adding that an agreement would depend on Seifsa’s offer.
“They have no choice but to come back to the negotiating table. We hope that this time they will put something meaningful, but in the meantime, the strike continues,” said Hlubi-Majola.
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