Union warns motor industry on bail-out

Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said that the motor industry's strategy to “secretly secure a cash flow deal with government and retrench workers at the same time in order to save the industry from economic collapse, will not work”.

In a letter to Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa, Jim said the union would oppose any bail-out package that would lead to huge job cuts in the troubled motor industry.

The letter was in reaction to the task team that was set up between the motor industry and Mpahlwa on 24 February at the request of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) and the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers.

The task team, which is trying to establish what the government needs to do to rescue the industry, met on Friday for the first time.

After the meeting, the Department of Trade and Industry said it expected “possible measures” aimed at rescuing the industry by the end of this month.

Thus far, the task team has excluded labour representatives.

Numsa spokesman Mziwakhe Hlangani said the union was in principle not against the bail-out package, but it was concerned about job security.

“The stimulus packages should not only benefit employers, but also workers as well,” he said.

Without specifying what action the union would take if the government and the industry reached an agreement on the rescue deal, Hlangani said: “We will see what happens when we cross that route.”

Jim said the union opposed any form of government bail-out decision without involving labour because companies in the motor industry started retrenchments when local and international demand for vehicles was at “its highest just to optimise profiteering competition”.

With an intended government rescue package of almost R10bn, Jim said that Numsa still did not believe the industry would reverse what he called its strategy to change decent work to precarious work, including continuing casualisation and short term contracts.

“We demand a moratorium on retrenchments and that affected companies must first compute in detail the challenges in relation to the need for short time, layoffs and retrenchments,” he said.

The “job bloodbath” had already seen the loss of more than 36,000 jobs in the vehicle and component manufacturing sectors, and dealerships, Jim said.

He said that a further 30,000 estimated job losses were expected if retrenchments continued.

Jim said the industry's adeptness in “playing juggling games and pleading for sympathy” became evident after the government was forced to review the Motor Industry Development Programme, which has been replaced by the Automotive Production and Development Programme.

Rather than addressing job cuts on a piecemeal basis, Jim said that SA “must declare the issue of jobs as a national disaster ... coupled with a national plan to protect our industries from imported cars and other goods”.

Source: Business Day

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