Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (SRSA) is grappling with strike action initiated by the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) at its tyre manufacturing plant in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday, 25 April 2023, resulting in a complete halt to operations and production at the facility.
Newcastillian News reported on the strike action, shedding light on the grievances raised by the union.
SRSA CEO, Lubin Ozoux, acknowledged that the strike follows prolonged tensions between SRSA and NUMSA on various issues, including an ongoing disciplinary process involving NUMSA-affiliated SRSA employees. Ozoux maintained that SRSA has diligently followed due process in the matter.
NUMSA’s dissatisfaction also stems from previously agreed upon working arrangements and SRSA’s recent announcement of reduced working hours from a 6-day working week to a 5-day working week, in response to the country’s economic challenges.
“Our management and HR teams are engaging with the various structures of the Union to resolve the situation as amicably and quickly as possible,” stated Ozoux, emphasising that the safety and well-being of the employees at the Ladysmith plant are the company’s primary concern. He further appealed to all parties to act responsibly and peacefully.
“We remain committed to ending this industrial action as soon as possible,” concluded Ozoux.
As SRSA works towards resolving the situation promptly, opinions and perspectives on the matter are invited in the comment section below.
Comments 4
These strikes in a time when the countries economy is so bad is just going to end in more unemployment I will rather have a job than no job at all think people all you strikers are doing is contributing to the economy crumbling further
I don’t think it’s fair to the CEO for employees to go on strike and demand him to be dismissed or suspended, I think employees are misleaded on that point the only thing the employees can do is to negotiate with the Company a better income and how they can achieve that as a unity , Employees must not fight for people who are under discipline processes because I don’t think the company can suspend a person without a valid reason….
I think they must sit down and negotiate
Well this is what happens when the union is in bed with the company. Instead of fighting for the rights of the workers, they busy with corruption to abuse employees. These company has a repetition of corruption, fraud and abuse of power. They closed down durban plant conducting a bogus retrenchment of all workers with help of Numsa.