Thousands of Ford SA workers affiliated with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) have downed tools.
The striking workers are staging demonstrations at the company’s Silverton plant in Pretoria as part of an indefinite strike action over profit sharing.
The union accuses the company of raking in billions of rand in profits annually and refusing to share the windfall with the workers. Ford has since approached the Labour Court on an urgent basis to try to block the strike action.
About 3 000 members of Numsa staged a demonstration outside their workplace at Ford SA in Silverton. They are demanding the company share accumulated profits.
They say Ford SA is generating billions of rand annually but only management, executives and shareholders benefit from the dividends.
“R45.8 billion in this first quarter. Last year they made a profit of R25 billion in 2023. In 2022 Ford’s gross profit was 23 billion dollars. This is an American company and makes dollars, let’s not get it confused it’s in dollars. In 2021 they made a gross profit of 21, 7 billion dollars, they did not incur any losses. This is profit…even during COVID they made a profit, there’s no problem of money here, there’s a problem of attitude of mind, that’s the problem we have. The problem of arrogancy,” says Numsa President Andrew Chirwa.
Numsa is the only labour union at Ford South Africa. It has accused the company of refusing to meaningfully engage with the workers, blocking access to the plant in Silverton backed by the police.
“What we are fighting for is a principle and the problem is that we are dealing with management that refuses to even engage on the principle first. We said to them let’s sit down and agree on a principle that if Ford declared dividends, we must agree on what percentage should be ring-fenced for workers as it is done for Executives as it is done for management, this is not a new phenomenon, it’s there in Europe, it’s there in France, it’s there in Germany, it’s there in the US Ford itself in the US does make provisions,” Chirwa explains.
Ford launched an urgent court interdict at the labour court to force workers to return to their posts. The company is arguing that profit sharing is not a principle and goes against the spirit of collective bargaining at the industry level.
It says workers are entitled to make proposals but can’t deviate from the National Bargaining Forum agreement, an assertion the union has slammed.
“This has been our contention all along that the company would want to use all manner of technicalities to undermine the genuine demand of workers. You could hear from the whole argument in this court they are dealing with rights, they’re not dealing with the question of whether the workers deserve or not. They are actually dealing with a big question. Whether we have a right to demand or we don’t have a right and you could follow their argument, they are sought to abuse the NBF agreement on performance bonuses. The NBF agreement has no provision for profit sharing. They’ve had no genuine intention to engage with us, negotiate on behalf of those workers demanding something that is there. They have assisted the company to generate over R25 billion in profit last year alone, they compensate management but why has there been no provision for workers,” Chirwa elaborates.
The workers say nothing will deter them. Ford has released a statement saying it has a long-term commitment to South Africa and that regrettably, production disruptions will have a profound impact on South Africa’s economy.
Video: NUMSA members picketing at Ford SA premises in Pretoria
