Numsa members in motor sector to march in Nelson Mandela Bay
01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author
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Metal workers union Numsa says its members in the motor sector will hold a mass march in Nelson Mandela Bay on Thursday.
The march will be led by Numsa deputy secretary-general, Karl Cloete, from New Brighton to the Retail Motor Industry in Govan Mbeki Avenue.
Thousands of Numsa members in the motor component sector, petrol stations and panel beaters, among others began a wage strike on Monday.
Their strike is meanwhile having an impact on their counterparts at the car manufacturing plants after they returned to work after a three week strike.
Lynnette Skriker of Mercedes Benz South Africa says the unavailability of components has effectively brought production to a halt at its East London plant.
"Our plant has stopped production since the first shift on Monday and today we continue to be on short time. The component industry strike has impacted us already" Skriker said.
Denise van Huyssteen of General Motors South Africa says they should be able to see out the week.
"We were able to resume with normal production operation on Monday and at this stage we are able to continue with production till the end of the week, but if the component sector strike is not resolved soon then we will probably not be able to continue with production nest week"
Speaking to Algoa FM News from Frankfurt Airport in Germany on Wednesday, VWSA Communications Manager, Matt Genrich, said they've been able to run normal production until now after their workers returned on Monday.
"Obviously we have to assess the situation on a day to day basis and it looks like we will probably be able to run a reasonably normal production to the end of this week and then we will re-assess the situation next week" he said.