striking workers at Ford company in Silverton photo by Dimakatso Modipa
The workers of Ford Motor Company have vow to continue with their strike action on Monday despite court interdict against them.
More than 3000 workers are on the street and vow not to go back tio work until their demand are meet.
Ford Motor Company has managed to obtain a court interdict from the Labour Court on Thursday against striking National Union of Metal of South Africa (NUMSA) at its plant in Silverton, Tshwane.
The workers abandoned their duties on Thursday morning after giving Ford Motor Company management a 48hour notice that they would go in strike if their demands for profit-sharing were not met.
Workers are of the opinion that the company is selfish and does not want to share profits with them.
According to reports, the vehicle manufacturing company Ford makes around R7,2 million a day out of the sales of card that it produces at its plant in Silverton, Tshwane.
The company manufactures around 720 vehicles a day and NUMSA members are of the opinion that this high number of cars manufactured at the plant is mainly due to the hard work of their members, who must duly be reward via profit-sharing.
However, Ford Company management is of the opinion that the demand for profit-sharing by workers falls under clause 8.3 of the National Bargaining Forum agreement which can only be renegotiated next year and not presently.
The Company then informed the workers that their demands for profit-sharing won’t be met and that if they as workers go on strike over profit-sharing, then the said strike would be unlawful and unprotected.
After receiving the 48hour notice from NUMSA, Ford Motor Company rushed to the Labour Court yesterday and successfully managed to get an interdict that prohibits NUMSA workers from going on strike.
A disappointed NUMSA regional leader Vivani Shezi told Tshwane Talks that their lawyers put up a good fight in the Labour Court regarding the strike issue but unfortunately the judge ruled against them.
“We were of the opinion that our case before the court was reasonable and within the confines of the law and the court should have allowed us to continue with the strike because in fact and in law there is no basis for an interdict against the striking NUMSA workers, ‘ said Shezi.
“We hope that on a return date regarding this matter we will be able to convince the court to allow workers to embark on a strike,” he explained.
He said in terms of the Labour Court process it was usually easy for employers to obtain an interdict but that this can be reversed on the return date on the matter.
“The workers are devasted and they feel hard done by the verdict, but our message to them is that we are not backing down on their demand and will continue to engage Ford Motor Company with the demand for profit-sharing,” said Shezi.
He explained that the workers will in the meantime have to go back to work while they as the union continue to persuade the company to meet them and enter into an agreement with the union regarding profit-sharing.
Be that as it may, NUMSA members have vowed to go on with the strike, emphasising that the court order is irrelevant to them as they have always achieved their goals through strike action whether it is legal or illegal.
One of the workers, who said he was once a shop steward at Ford Motor Company, said working conditions at Ford and the refusal of the management to meet their demands would lead to some of them always running the risk of suffering a heart attack.
“Comrades, in the past we used to go on strike without a strike certificate and won, today you are lucky because you have a strike certificate which protects you, so stay strong and don’t go back to work until the demand for profit-sharing is met by the company,” he said.
A woman worker told the striking workers that if they go back to work without their demands being met then the management is going to victimised them and fire them one after another.
“We are going to continue with the strike until our demands are met, because once we are on strike we must make sure that our demands are met before going back to work,” said one worker.
A lady worker told appealed to those who have been employed at Ford Motor Company is not intimidated by the company’s tactics but must instead stand together with the rest of the striking workers and speak in one voice with them.
Another worker announced that NUMSA has always been a militant union and was expelled from COSATU in 2013 and subsequently formed its own workers Federation (SAFTU) as it could not tolerate sell-out union leaders.
He then announced that from now on, the striking workers will come to the gates of Ford Motor Company as early as possible every day to make sure that no one goes into the premises to work.