NUMSA strikers march on city hall

NUMSA’s Engineering Wage Negotiation strike which began around the country on Tuesday morning started peacefully in Durban. NUMSA has since given employers 48 hours to respond to their demands and return to the negotiating table with a commitment to a double digit offer.

Protesters were in high spirits as they gathered at King Dinuzulu Park opposite the Durban Christian Centre on Tuesday, singing, dancing and even toyi-toying to thunderous music. Wearing red T-shirts, they moved from the park through the CBD and on to Durban City Hall where Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA addressed the workers and praised them on their turnout. They handed over a memorandum of demands to the city’s engineering department representatives.

Jim said the decision to embark on an indefinite strike was a difficult one because of the no work, no pay policy of employers. He said the union was demanding a 12 per cent salary increase, the scrapping of labour brokers and a one-year bargaining agreement, but employers had offered a seven to eight per cent increase.

Workers from all areas of the metal and engineering sector have downed tools and are prepared for an indefinite strike. Boiler maker, Sbu Mzobe said he was there to strike for a 12 per cent increase. “We don’t need a labour broker, they are taking too much money away. We also don’t get our overtime and proper benefits. This is a peaceful strike, we just want our demands met,” he said.

Ayanda Mzimela who works making aerosol and paint cans said, “Things are very expensive and we are getting paid peanuts. We have no housing allowance so can never get out of poverty.”

Elfie Stowman, a long distance driver from Sydenham said he was at the march to support NUMSA workers and hoped the wage negotiations would go well for him. “They only allow a certain amount of overtime, but with driving we start at six or seven in the morning and only get back way after six at night, sometimes at eight but can’t claim overtime. Everything is going up but our wages,” he added.

John Devenish, of DSM WASP, although not a member of NUMSA said he supported them a hundred per cent. “There is propaganda about how these demands are unreasonable, but I feel they are perfectly reasonable. If a company cannot afford the increase they should open their books and show us their profits,” he said.

Castro Ngobese spokesman for NUMSA said, “We are not going to be intimidated by all those who represent the class interest of business and big capital. They argue that we are embarking on a political strike and we doing so to take forward the alleged mineworkers strike against the economy. Workers withdrawal of labour in a wage dispute is the only weapon they have,” he said.