{"id":526392,"date":"2021-10-05T08:50:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T06:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=526392"},"modified":"2021-10-05T08:50:54","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T06:50:54","slug":"300000-workers-expected-to-take-part-in-national-strike-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/526392\/300000-workers-expected-to-take-part-in-national-strike-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"300,000 workers expected to take part in national strike in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) embarked on a national strike on Tuesday (5 October) following a deadlock in negotiations for a new wage deal.<\/p>\n<p>Union members didn&#8217;t report for duty in five of the country&#8217;s nine provinces and will begin picketing and marching during the course of the morning, Numsa spokeswoman Phakamile Hlubi-Majola told Bloomberg by phone.<\/p>\n<p>The union has about 155,000 members, while the strike is expected to attract more than 300,000 workers, including from allied unions, she added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The strike is on, and nothing has changed,&#8221; Hlubi-Majola said. &#8220;As of this morning, workers didn&#8217;t go to work, so we are on strike.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Numsa, one of the most prominent labour organisations in South Africa, is demanding an 8% wage increase in the first year and a 2%-above-inflation increase in the subsequent two years.<\/p>\n<p>The union said it has planned marches for the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, with rallies also expected to be held in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Today is D-Day. Today we shut down the Engineering sector!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EngineeringStrike?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#EngineeringStrike<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Asjiki?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Asjiki<\/a><br \/>\n.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IrvinJimSA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@IrvinJimSA<\/a><br \/>\n.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SAFTU_media?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SAFTU_media<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZTDZLo5rv2\">pic.twitter.com\/ZTDZLo5rv2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NUMSA (@Numsa_Media) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Numsa_Media\/status\/1445266238624702464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">&#8220;Bosses in the engineering sector benefitted from the sacrifice which workers made last year when a standstill agreement was signed, and no increases were given in order to cushion the industry against the ravages of the Covid-19 <\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">\u00a0virus. Now they are refusing to give back,&#8221; the union said in a statement on social media on Monday (4 October).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are demanding that 8% increase across the board for the first year, and CPI + 2% improvement factor for the second and third year. If CPI + 2% falls below 6%, employers must offer 6% or re-open negotiations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are calling on all workers to come out and to join the strike in defence of their just demands for a meaningful increase! We are calling for a total shutdown of the engineering sector until these stubborn employers see sense.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>With further reporting by Bloomberg.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/526226\/south-africas-shrinking-skills-is-a-big-growth-problem-economist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africa&#8217;s shrinking skills is a big growth problem: economist<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa embarked on a national strike on Tuesday (5 October) following a deadlock in negotiations for a new wage deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":526420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-526392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526392"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526428,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526392\/revisions\/526428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}