The country’s largest car manufacturers are pursuing a reactionary line of attack against workers and shop stewards in the workplace to frustrate the labour unions activities.
This disturbing trend has emerged after several major auto assembly plants, including Daimler Chrysler, BMW, Ford and Toyota have adopted backward restructuring plans, flexible working hours and other shift patterns in the workplace to weaken trade unions activities and often hounded union shop stewards.
And, as a result Numsa is to conduct a series of workshops throughout regions to review labour strategies, demands and deal with the challenges faced by its members in various auto, metal and engineering sectors, in preparation for its upcoming national bargaining council next year.
Although vehicle manufacturers often reported exceedingly over and above production performance levels, high export growth and record sales, they have and consciously taken bold initiatives to violate worker rights, through outsourcing, restructuring, threatening shop stewards and consequently weakening trade unions.
“For example, Toyota South Africa has subjected Numsa shop stewards to disciplinary hearings after workers had embarked on a wildcat strike, when they demanded to be addressed by the general manager on restructuring plans,” Numsa chief legal coordinator Booysen Mashego said yesterday.
The company claimed it had suffered financial losses amounting to more than R800 000 when shop stewards incited a strike action by refusing to normalize the situation in the paint shop.
Meanwhile, Ford Motor Company fired 17 workers and reportedly threatened to take disciplinary action against several shop stewards after workers downed tools in protest against share scheme bonuses exclusively awarded to salaried staff members.
Numsa is also concerned about the dismissal of several workers at BMW Pretoria plant for allegedly participating in an illegal work stoppage and attempts by the company management to discipline shop stewards en- masse for allegedly inciting the strike.
The union is also unhappy with the car manufacturer’s tactics of moving ahead with their plans to force employees to work short time because certain car models were being phased out and the entire workforce at Daimler Chrysler was consequently threatened with three-months lay- offs next year.
Numsa’s dissatisfaction with the motor manufacturing industry’s restructuring plans was that it more often did not comply with the South African legislative measures where labour, business and government were consulted, but followed global trends which undermined the workers’ working conditions.
For further information contact:-
Mziwakhe Hlangani, Numsa national information officer
Cell phone: 0829407116
Website: www.numsa.org.za