The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa [NUMSA] will ballot 6 000 workers at VWSA Uitenhage factory for a primary strike action on Monday 16/05/2005 .
The protected strike at VWSA Roodekop parts warehouse has entered its third day with no solution. The strike was prompted by the unilateral outsourcing of the packing department at the parts distribution division to a labour broker. The outsourcing of the packing area will affect 19 workers. Since the dispute emerged three months ago, the VWSA company has refused to reverse the decision to outsource.
Due to the failure of the company to resolve the matter, we found it necessary to call extra troops to strengthen and extend the strike. We have already started with intense mobilization of the 6 000 workers and everything looks set for action. The union will have to follow the collective agreement before embarking on strike; thus the need to ballot workers. The company has been impervious to accept that outsourcing coupled with labour brokering remains a problem. Outsourcing to a labour broker is not a panacea to workplace restructuring. We do not want labour brokers to be widespread as they hold workers in bondage. They also violate existing core labour standards.
There are better methods that could be used to minimize damages in the workplace. It is a known fact that labour brokers reverse gains of workers and in turn destroy unions. It is not given that outsourcing and the use of labour brokers increase productivity and raise competitiveness. It has been proven that the use of labour brokers decreases labour productivity. The union is against changes that will ultimately offset all the rights of workers.
The company has failed to act in pursuit of good labour relations. Any strike will end the tendency of the company to overlook and undermine the rights of workers. Most importantly it will stop all the lies that workers at Uitenhage factory will not strike. The company cannot put barriers on the right to strike. Workers control the union and the union communicates on behalf of workers. Therefore employers have no right to tell workers not to strike. We are not a “sweetheart” or “yellow” union. Without strong union workers rights will go unchecked and ultimately stifled. The future prospects of the trade union depend, to a great extent on resisting negative trends that undermine standards.
[For further information please contact Dumisa Ntuli @ 011 689 1700 or 0829737282]