After years of planning, the auto main agreement workshop finally kicked off with a pilot session in Durban . Shopstewards representing Toyota SA ( Durban ), Daimler Chrysler (Pinetown) and Man Truck (Pinetown) attended the 3 days session in December. The pilot signals the first in a series of workshops for the auto sector. The main agreement (NBF) workshop will be followed by a more advanced workshop covering issues such as the MIDP (Motor Industry Development Programme) and the future of the auto industry in South Africa . The auto workshop covered issues on the nature of collective agreements, a brief history of the rise and development of trade unions in the auto sector and the role they played in forming NUMSA (1987). Shopstewards discussed and debated a number of issues including the effectiveness of the National Bargaining Forum (NBF) as a co-ordinating bargaining chamber for the automobile industry. Notwithstanding the provisions of the NBF, it was clear that a number of issues were still negotiated at plant level. This created further divisions amongst shopstewards in the sector, besides weakening the concept of proper centralised bargaining. "Numsa must continue to challenge Ameo and fight for uniform conditions in the industry", said one shop steward. Some participants felt that the workshop raised issues in the NBF that required further attention – like the clause on retrenchment. The issue of auto shopstewards becoming an 'elite' was hotly contested and argued. Shopstewards agreed that there was only one Numsa and committed themselves to the formation of a strong, united metalworkers union in the country. Some amendments and changes have been made to the pilot and the course will now run in the Eastern Cape and Northern Transvaal for the benefit of the auto shopstewards in these regions.
Auto shop stewards at their Agreement workshop in December.
Source
Numsa News