Talks continue to end South African metal industry strike

Jul 11, 2007, 18:24 GMT

Johannesburg - Talks to end a strike by South African metal workers were continuing Wednesday evening despite an earlier announcement saying a deal had been reached.

Solidarity, one of two major unions in the metal industry along with the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), had earlier said members would receive pay increases of between 8 and 9 per cent.

However news agency SAPA later quoted a spokesman for the Steel and Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) as saying that bargaining was still underway between employers and other labour organizations.

'All six unions, including Solidarity, have not signed' the wage agreement, Seifsa spokesman Brian Angus said.

Solidarity spokesman Jacob Kleynhans insisted that Solidarity had agreed to the deal, but not yet signed as it would still support Numsa in dealing with that union's outstanding concerns.

'We are 100 per cent behind Numsa in helping them to deal with the issues that their members have with the offer. Our members are happy,' he said.

Meanwhile Numsa, which represents the majority of workers in the sector, said the strike would continue, according to SAPA.

'From Numsa's point of view, the strike continues. The strike will continue until employers have made a substantial offer,' Numsa general secretary Silumko Nondwangu told reporters in Johannesburg.

At the outset of the strike Monday employers were offering increases of between 7.3 and 7.8 per cent while the unions were demanding 10 per cent.

More than 260,000 workers are employed in South Africa's metal industry in over 9,000 firms.