The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is embarking on strike action from today, 4 July, at the Ford assembly plant in Silverton, Gauteng due to ongoing wage disputes.
Numsa claims that Ford is refusing to share profits with its factory workers through the payment of bonuses. This comes after Ford Global reported a gross profit of over US$90 billion in the last four years.
Negotiations between the parties, which took place on 11 June 2024 at the CCMA offices in Pretoria, were unsuccessful, with Ford allegedly stating that Numsa’s demands were “impermissible,” leading to the union to issue the strike order to its members.
“Ford is a multinational which is capacitated to build about 720 cars per day. They can definitely afford some kind of a bonus,” said Numsa General Secretary, Irvin Jim.
“We reject their reasons and justifications for refusing to share the profit with workers. Our members are creators of wealth and Ford has benefitted hugely from the sweat and labour of workers.”
Numsa served Ford a 48-hour strike notice on 2 July, with the picketing having begun today, 4 July, at 06h00.
Ford responds
Duduzile Nxele, corporate communications manager at Ford South Africa, told BusinessDay that the company has requested non-striking employees to work from home for the duration of the strike.
“Ford has a long-term commitment to South Africa and has invested heavily in its operations and local employees. Regrettably, production disruptions have a profound impact on South Africa’s economy and global reputation as a place to do business,” said Nxele.
“When making decisions about future investment, consistency of production is vital to maintaining competitiveness and an important factor when determining manufacturing locations.”
In the past, automakers including Ford, Isuzu, and VW warned that the cost of doing business on local soil is rapidly becoming unaffordable due to persistent challenges affecting vehicle production.
A consequence of the country’s ailing port operations, lacking rail infrastructure, load-shedding, high labour costs, and theft, Ford’s Silverton Plant in Gauteng, which produces the Ranger and VW Amarok bakkies, is now more expensive to operate than its sister facility in Thailand, making it much tougher to secure future investment.
President of the Blue Oval’s domestic subsidiary, Neale Hill, labeled this phenomenon as the “slow death of South Africa.”
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