At least 6 000 workers in six major tyre manufacturing plants in Port Elizabeth, Kwazulu-Natal and North West will embark on strike on Friday.
This follows a shop stewards council decision of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa in Port Elizabeth today(Tuesday) to ground operations to a virtual halt in support of their demands for 10% wage increase -across the- board. Several rounds of negotiations have failed to resolve the wage dispute.
Employers in the New Tyre Manufacturing Industry Association said they were prepared to offer only 7% increases.
Also high in the list of Numsa demands, include disclosure of information in respect of actual wages for hourly and salaried employees, executive perks and their pay increases in the last five years.
This is to ensure that the union is in a position to engage management effectively in the wage negotiations and other conditions of employment.
Other union demands, also include the scrapping of the labour brokers in the industry, between 20%-15% shift allowances for night and afternoon shifts and that the provision of transport for shift workers is prioritized.
Goodyear, Continental and Bridgestone plants in Port Elizabeth’s North end will be severely affected; meanwhile thousands of workers in Bridgestone plant, Brits in North West Province, Dunlop in Durban and Ladysmith were highly prepared and mobilized to join the strike.
The union also demands that employees whose wages after 2007 increments were effected remained below the applicable level entry rates should receive further increase to bring them on par to the applicable skill level entry rates, according Numsa auto and tyre national sector coordinator Herman Ntlatleng said.
“Nothing will stop us from achieving our demands as they were just and intended to improve the living conditions of our members. We are prepared for a fight to fight as long as selfish employers refuse to ensure that workers were entitled to better living wages,” he said.
For further information contact:
Mziwakhe Hlangani, Numsa national spokesperson
Cell phone: 082 9407116
E-mail : mziwakheh@numsa.org.za