Auto Industry to resolve one month strike

Finally after the workers agreed on the pay deal, the strike ended up after 1 month which has reduced the output levels like the one never seen before.

According to the agreement, workers involved in National Union of Metalworkers will receive a 10 per cent increase in compensation this year and that of 8% increase in the following two years.

NUMSA is one of the largest union in South Africa’s automotive industry, which included variety of workers involved in the construction and development of car components taking to the market for over a month in order to secure their pay rise.

The employees of BMW, Ford, General Motors and Nissan also followed the strike, but they followed relatively smaller protest in order to secure an increase in pay for the next three years.

The manufacturers reported in context to the output of the strike cost to around £1.24 billion. The country’s automotive industry will face a great loss as BMW has declared to stop all its future plans to expand in South Africa.

BMW managing director in SA Bobo Donauer said that the industrial action stopped the company from producing over 11,000 cars that were scheduled for production during the strikes.

The company planned to stop its expansion in South Africa and have been called ‘Blackmail’ by industrial organisers, including Irvin Jim, the general secretary of NUMSA.

This action to limit the production from BMW purely states that the strikes have greatly affected the industry far more than the prediction. Mr. Jim further added that the strike “was very hard” for the union as per the opinion shared by the economist.

Around 30,000-40,000 people were believed to have taken part in the strike which stopped the production for over one month. Depending on the job title and their involvement the car companies gave the workers a large pay hike up to 11.5%.