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South African Auto Strikes Enter Fourth Day
A walkout on Monday by hourly workers at the South African plants of six carmakers, including Ford, General Motors and Toyota, continues to idle the country's auto industry.
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A walkout on Monday by hourly workers at the South African plants of six carmakers, including Ford, General Motors and Toyota, continues to idle the country's auto industry.
The work stoppage by the country's 30,000 autoworkers also affects Daimler, Nissan and Volkswagen. Union members have been on strike at BMW since Aug. 8.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa resumed bargaining with the National Assn. of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa today.
The union is seeking better benefits and a 14% annual increase in wages. The industry group, which originally proposed an 8% annual pay hike, briefly boosted its first-year offer to 10%. But earlier this week NAAMSA retracted those terms and returned to its initial proposal.
The carmaker group estimates the strike's daily cost at more than 3,000 units of lost production and as much as 700 million rand ($69 million). South Africa produces about 600,000 vehicles per year, of which slightly more than half is exported.
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