Numsa certain on mass strike action

29 July 2010 - 18:25
By Sapa

Numsa will join the public service workers after reaching deadlock

Trade union Numsa and management reached a deadlock in wage negotiations by Thursday afternoon, a spokesman said.

"We are 110 percent sure that we will be joining public service workers and embarking on industrial mass action soon," National Union of Metal Workers of SA, spokesman Castro Ngobese said.

Negotiations with the Retailers Motor Industry (RMI) and the Fuel Retailers Association (FRA) began on June 17.

Included in Numsa's demands is a 20 percent wage increase across the board, a R20 per hour minimum for the lowest paid in all
sectors and for Sunday workers to receive double pay.

Castro said the RMI and FRA had not agreed to any of the demands.

He said "the capitalist bosses" offered a six percent wage increase but would not accept Numsa's compromise of 15 percent.

Last week, the union said it had been involved in protracted wage negotiations with the Automobile Employer Organisation (AMEO).

AMEO spokesman Chris Thexton confirmed that those negotiations had also reached a deadlock.

"We're hoping for a settlement so that a strike can be averted," he said.

He said AMEO and the union would meet again in early August.

Ngobese said the demands are consistent with the living wage campaign as led by Cosatu "which calls for 'decent work is equal to decent pay' for all... and the ANC's electoral commitments of creating decent work for the workers and the poor".

"We are ready and agitated to use our mobilisation power to withhold our labour 'power' until our demands are met by the exploiters and profiteers," he said.

null

Current rating: 2 from 1 votes.