After walking off the job on 11 August, the strike by thousands of South African auto workers has been resolved with a deal to raise wages by almost 30 percent over the next three years.
A number of manufacturers were hit by the strikes – including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen – which led to lost production of around 17 000 vehicles.
The agreement between metal workers union NUMSA and the Automotive Manufacturers Employers Organisation (AMEO) provides for across-the-board wage increases of 10% for 2010, 9% in 2011 and another 9% in 2012.
NUMSA was initially after a 15 percent increase for workers, which would have been more than triple South Africa’s current 4.2 percent rate of inflation.
“The strike and resultant loss of volume has caused significant reputational damage to the automobile manufacturing industry in South Africa as a stable production location and this could have repercussions in terms of our ability to attract future investments going forward”, read a statement from AMEO.
South Africa’s automotive industry produces around 420 000 vehicles per year and accounts for up to seven percent of the country’s gross domestic product. More than 420 jobs were created in the motor industry’s second quarter of 2010, boosting the workforce to 31 784, while 61 000 jobs were lost across the country in the same period.
Related posts:
