South Africa's engineering sector workers strike for pay raise

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - South Africa's largest engineering metal workers trade union embarked on a nationwide strike Tuesday demanding a pay rise.

The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) is demanding an 8% pay increase while employers are offering 4%.

The strike is threatening to cripple manufacturing industries.

NUMSA spokeswoman Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said the 4% hike offer is too small for some of the lowest earners who get 30 rand per hour, about $2.

“This is a disgrace especially when workers in the engineering sector sacrificed their salary increases last year to protect the engineering sector and companies (due to effects of the coronavirus)," she said during a protest march.

Thousands of union members dressed in red T-shirts carried placards calling for pay rises as they marched to the iconic Mary Fitzgerald Square in Johannesburg on the first day of the strike. Marches are expected in other provinces throughout the country.

“We are calling on all workers to come out and to join the strike in defense of their just demands for a meaningful increase! We are calling for a total shut down of the engineering sector until these stubborn employers see sense!,’’ NUMSA said in a statement on Twitter.

There are about 300,000 sector employees with 155,000 registered members of NUMSA.

South Africa is Africa’s most industrialized economy with various manufacturing industries including factories that make car parts, accessories and steel plants.