Wednesday 21 August 2013
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has late this afternoon, Wednesday August 21, 2013, received an official notice from the automobile bosses, requesting the resumption of negotiations, tomorrow afternoon Thursday August 2013, around Pretoria, Gauteng.
The intentions of tomorrow’s negotiations is to find a possible and lasting settlement on the ongoing strike action in the automobile sector, which has crippled the sector and halted production over the past three (3) days, as a result of the stubbornness of the employer to concede to our demands.
On Friday August 23, 2013, General Meetings will be convened by NUMSA’s democratically elected Shopstewards and leaders in all the major seven plants in Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, East London, Uitenhage and Durban, purely to give feedback to our members. These General Meetings will allow our members through a democratic and transparent process to engage with the report and outcomes based on our discussions and negotiations that would have taken place with the employers.
This process will be a clear demonstration of our continued adherence to our longstanding principle of worker control and worker’s power from below, amidst false insinuations by some factional voices within the broader liberation movement that worker control is no longer being exercised in the trade union movement, particularly amongst COSATU affiliated unions.
In no way thus these latest developments, particularly our engagements with employer’s tomorrow, Thursday August 23, 2013, suspend the strike action. The strike action is still continuing until the automobile ruling oligarchy concedes to workers’ demands. Our members will continue holding pickets or demonstrations outside their respective plants.
Furthermore, the planned marches for next week in Gauteng and East Cape will continue as planned.
Contact:
Castro Ngobese
National Spokesperson
Mobile: 0810111137
Email:castron@numsa.org.za
Twitter: @castrongobese
Website: www.numsa.org.za