By Akani Nkuna
Solidarity has applauded the revived talks between ArcelorMittal SA and the government to address the looming closure of its steel plants, but it says the outcome of the discussions must be made public.
The union said on Friday that past secretive discussions has failed to benefit AMSA or its employees.
Solidarity’s Willie Venter said in a statement that AMSA’s presentation showed the dire financial position regarding long steel products in general.
“We understand that. Still, discussions about this and action should have taken place a long time ago to reposition the Newcastle and Vereeniging plants,” he said.
Venter emphasised that government intervention alone was not enough, and other areas which presented a long-term solution needed to be explored to salvage the plants and protect thousands of jobs.
“We also cannot rely solely on government intervention because if it helps at all, it will only be of value in the short term. AMSA must be transparent about its future plans.
“Solidarity and its members are taking the matter very seriously and we are not going to sit around and wait for 3500 jobs to be neutralised,” he said.
This development comes after the ArcelorMittal announced that it intended to close its long-steel plants in Vereeniging and Newcastle by the end of the month, following a year of unsuccessful and inconclusive discussions with the government.
Economic commentators have said that the abrupt shutdown for ArcelorMittal dealt a significant blow to South Africa’s automotive manufacturing sector, which relied heavily on the steel supplier.
The National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufactures (NAACAM) asserted that that AMSA’s departure would have far-reaching consequences, impacting the entire automotive value chain and affiliated downstream industries, ultimately threatening the competitiveness of South Africa’s domestic automotive sector.
“The automotive industry is a significant contributor of South Africa’s GDP and export revenues, with vehicles and components accounting for approximately 15% of total exports. Therefore, any erosion of the industry’s cost competitiveness would severely impair its global market viability,” said NAACAM.
According to Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Perks Tau, the government held a meeting with the Mittal family, the primary shareholders of ArcelorMittal, on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We have met with the Mittal family, chairman of ArcelorMittal, the three ministers, Minister of DTIC, Minister of Finance, Minister of Electricity and we have had a discussion and said how do we begin solving the problems that we have particularly in Vereeniging and Newcastle.
“How do we avert what could be a job blood bath, we are working around solutions. The president also met Mr Mittal, they have accelerated the discussion to find the solution sooner rather than later,” he said.
Talks between unions and AMSA management will resume next week, with updates expected on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s discussion with Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal’s executive chairman.
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