SOUTH Africa’s ongoing steelworker strike is likely to lead to job cuts, further hammering an industry that’s been in decline for several years, according to the country’s main employer body.
The week-long walkout by as many as 300,000 members and allies of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has affected five provinces and disrupted supply chains to major firms, including carmaker BMW AG.
The labor group is weighing a response to a renewed pay offer, spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said Tuesday.
“These strikes lead to employers having to put people on short-time and having to let some of the workers go,” Gerhard Papenfus, CEO of the National Employers Association of South Africa, said by phone. “It ultimately leads to job losses.”
The strike threatens to derail the potential recovery of South Africa’s economy from the coronavirus pandemic, which triggered the biggest annual contraction since at least the end of
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