Inside Politics Reporter
THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) down tools at Ford Motor Company of SA in Silverton on Thursday.
Numsa is the only union representing over 3000 workers and on Tuesday, it served Ford South Africa with a 48-hour notice to strike.
Andrew Chirwa, Numsa President Andrew addressed more than 3000 workers at the Quarterly General Meeting and said workers are angry that Ford is trying to deny them bonuses.
“Ford failed to reach an agreement with Numsa at the conciliation held on the 11th of June 2024 at the CCMA offices in Pretoria. After picketing rules were concluded, the Commissioner issued the certificate to strike,” he said.
Irvin Jim, Numsa General Secretary, said the union has given Ford an opportunity to rethink its stand, but to date they have not come to the party.
“The reason for the strike is that Ford is refusing to share its profits with workers. Our members are the creators of wealth and Ford has benefitted hugely from the sweat and labour of workers,” Jim said.
He added that Ford management pretends not to understand the demand and they keep claiming it is ‘impermissible’ and they claim that workers have no right to demand bonuses. A statement rejected by the metalworkers union.
Ford is a multinational which is capacitated to build about 720 cars per day and Jim said the company can definitely afford some kind of a bonus.
For the last four years, Ford Global has made a fortune. According to Macrotrends, in the last year their gross profit for the 12 months ending March 31, 2024 was $25.137B, a 0.45% increase year-over-year.
▪ In 2023 gross profit was $25 billion
▪ In 2022 gross profit was $23 billion
▪ In 2021 during lockdown gross profit was $21, 69 billion!
The strike begins on Thursday 4th July at 6AM, said Jim who called on all workers at Ford to unite behind NUMSA and to unite behind their demands.
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