By Johnathan Paoli
South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) General-Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has warned that never again should a small group of workers be left to fight alone against a multinational company when their struggle could set a precedent for cheaper labour across an entire industry.
In a statement on Thursday, Vavi said the 350 National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) members who spent almost three months on strike at Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) in Gqeberha had been fighting far more than a battle over their own wages, and admitted that SAFTU and the organised working class had failed to rise to the occasion.
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“The next time workers stand between multinational capital and a precedent capable of driving South Africa into a low-wage industrial future, they must not stand alone. Investment yes. Industrialisation yes. International cooperation yes. But never at the price of turning workers against one another in a global race to the bottom,” he said.
Vavi said the suspension of the 11-week strike should force the federation and the wider labour movement to confront how it had responded to a dispute with implications extending well beyond BAIC, NUMSA and Gqeberha.
The federation said the workers had returned to work after more than two months without their normal wages, under enormous financial pressure, while their central demands remained unresolved.
SAFTU said that the dispute was “never simply a strike over R48 an hour”.
The lowest-paid BAIC workers earn R48 an hour, compared with the automotive industry’s National Bargaining Forum entry rate of R121.
Spray painters earn R84 against an industry rate of R163.24, while welders earn R48 compared with R180.53.
BAIC is not part of the National Bargaining Forum and can therefore point to compliance with the statutory National Minimum Wage.
But SAFTU said this exposed the central issue — that what is legally permissible can still represent a major setback for workers.
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“Workers did not struggle for generations merely to establish the absolute minimum below which an employer may not go. They fought for collective bargaining, sectoral standards, permanent employment, benefits, health and safety, union recognition and the principle of equal standards for workers performing comparable work,” Vavi said.
SAFTU warned that allowing BAIC to operate substantially below established automotive-sector rates could encourage other manufacturers to demand similar concessions.
“If one manufacturer can produce vehicles in South Africa while paying dramatically below established industry standards, what prevents the next investor from demanding the same arrangement?” Vavi asked.
SAFTU said it had issued statements and expressed solidarity but had not done enough to turn the BAIC dispute into a national working-class campaign.
“We should have mobilised much more decisively across our affiliates. We should have built a substantial strike solidarity fund. We should have taken the BAIC struggle into workplaces nationally. We should have mobilised international solidarity. Workers should never have been left to fight until hunger became an industrial-relations weapon,” Vavi said.
But the federation also rejected attempts to frame its concerns as hostility towards China.
Chinese manufacturers have rapidly expanded their presence in South Africa, with their share of the passenger-car market rising from 11.2% in 2024 to 16.8% in 2025.
SAFTU said this industrial expansion had to be understood alongside the weakening of South Africa’s own manufacturing capacity.
The federation welcomed Chery’s planned acquisition of the former Nissan plant at Rosslyn, Tshwane and its intention to begin local production in 2027, saying this represented the type of investment South Africa should encourage, provided it brought local suppliers, technology transfer, skills development and decent work.
“If you want access to our market, invest in our productive capacity. Manufacture increasingly here. Source increasingly here. Develop local suppliers. Transfer technology. Beneficiate our minerals. Train our workers. Respect our unions. Participate in collective bargaining. And comply with established industry standards,” the statement said.
Those conditions, Vavi said, should apply equally to Chinese, German, American, Japanese, Korean, Indian and South African capital.
NUMSA members downed tools on 15 June in a dispute over wages and employment conditions.
The union said BAIC had previously employed workers under National Bargaining Forum rates, but that after workers were laid off in June 2025 during a plant refurbishment, those recalled in August 2025 returned at substantially reduced rates.
NUMSA demanded that Skill Level 1 workers receive R121 an hour, while specialised workers should be brought into line with established automotive rates.
It also demanded acting team leaders be permanently appointed and receive backdated allowances.
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The union demanded permanent employment for qualifying fixed-term workers and employees working without written contracts, as well as the absorption of Youth Employment Service participants into permanent positions after their 12-month learnerships.
The strike brought production at the plant to a standstill.
Earlier this month, workers agreed to suspend the strike and return to work while negotiations continued under a CCMA Section 150 facilitation process.
NUMSA Eastern Cape regional secretary Mziyanda Twani said the dispute remained alive and that the union would continue pressing for a long-term agreement bringing BAIC into the National Bargaining Forum.
The plant is 65% owned by BAIC, with the state-owned Industrial Development Corporation holding the remaining 35%.
