Numsa tells motor companies: 'Go ahead and leave'

[caption id="attachment_40157" align="alignright" width="405"] CLOSURE WORRY: The Ford engine plant in Struandale, Port Elizabeth. INSET: Numsa national treasurer Mphumzi Maqungo. Picture: BRIAN WITBOOI[/caption]

FORD SA was yesterday revealed as the American motor industry giant which has threatened to close its operations due to the unstable labour environment in the country, according to an employers' organisation.

The source of the warning was revealed just hours after Numsa national treasurer Mphumzi Maqungo said at the Nangoza Jebe Hall in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, that the union had told major German manufacturer BMW it could pull out of the country if it wanted to.

Meanwhile, Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) communications manager Ollie Madlala confirmed that Ford SA had threatened to pull out.

"Seifsa chief executive officer Kaizer Nyatsumba was phoned by the chief executive of Ford Motor Corporation South Africa, Jeff Nemeth, [who said that the company was threatening to close its operations due to the unstable labour environment].

"The information was shared, indicating the level of concern in the country regarding the Numsa strike and its damaging impact on different sectors of the economy, not just the metals and engineering sector.

"It was a statement of fact and not one intended to put pressure on anyone," she said.

Neither Nemeth nor Ford's national communications manager, Alisea Chetty, could be reached for comment yesterday.

Seifsa represents 20% of the 10500 companies in the bargaining council but covers more than half of all employees.

In a statement released by General Motors SA yesterday, it said just under 30000 people were directly employed by the automotive manufacturers, while a further 200000 people are indirectly employed via the industry.

Meanwhile, Maqungo, reporting back on the ongoing wage negotiations between the union and Seifsa, said the union would not be blackmailed into ending the strike by the use of warnings about the already fragile economy.

"The reality of the matter is that the motor [industry] will be subjected to short-time this week, then the rest goes on and that was the intention of the strike.

"The purpose of a strike is to hit where it matters the most so that those who think we are on a honeymoon – no [must know we are not].

"BMW has written to us [saying] if the strike proceeds they will pull out."

But Maqungo told union members that the reason why the motor companies "are in South Africa is not because they love us – they don't care about us. It cannot be that when we are fighting for benefits, you [some motor companies] are putting a barrel of a gun on top of our heads saying, 'I will pull out'.

"We told them, 'Pull out'. Now once you say that, people say you are an irresponsible leader. As we continue with this strike, we are going to be blackmailed even in the township," he said.

The union's stance comes days after international companies announced investments in other parts of the world, but none in Africa. - Mkhululi Ndamase