African Activist Archive

The mailing says the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is suing Ford Motor Company's South African pension fund and the Anglo-American Corporation for control of the pension fund created by Ford workers in S.A. and to recover more than R40 million ($16.4 million). The mailing says in 1985 Ford merged with Anglo-American's car company to form SAMCOR, closed its Port Elizabeth assembly plants, and moved its operations to Pretoria; thousands of black workers lost their jobs; these workers lost any right to benefit from the pension money set aside for them by the company, although the union negotiated severance pay and repayment of the workers' own pension fund contributions; these funds were transferred to Anglo-American. The mailing says adding insult to injury, Ford then rewrote the pension fund constitution so that it could use the pension money to pay workers' severance benefits, amounting to R15 million ($6 million). The mailing says historically, pension funds in South Africa were developed to meet the needs of white workers; as the industrial workforce changed, more and more black workers were covered by these plans; but black workers barely make a living wage and suffer frequent layoffs, injury and illness; they rarely make it to retirement age in one company and usually lose any right to a pension; for this reason, pension funds accumulate huge actuarial reserves under direct company control. Rather than benefitting the workers, pension funds in S.A. have really become capital funds for industry. The mailing says in 1987, the union filed suit to force the company to repay the money and to distribute the total pension fund to the Port Elizabeth workers; after years of delay, the lawsuit is now being heard in the Port Elizabeth Supreme Court; more than R40 million is at stake as well as the principle of workers' control over pension funds. The mailing says NUMSA believes international pressure will strengthen its chances of a just settlement; U.S. unions have fought against companies using mergers and restructuring to shed their obligations to their workforce; NUMSA is asking for help in preventing Ford from playing the same game in South Africa. The mailing asks people to send letters or telegrams supporting the demands of NUMSA to Mr. Harold Poling, Chair and Chief CEO, Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan; Mr. S. L. Sterling, Group Managing Director, SAMCOR (PTY) LTD in Pretoria, South Africa; and Mr. R. M. Godsell, Anglo-American Corporation in Johannesburg, South Africa. [Note: This document has the same text that was copied from a New York Labor Committee Against Apartheid document dated April 9, 1990 which is on this website.]

African Activist Archive

SOUTH AFRICAN WORKERS CHALLENGE FORD's CONTROL OF PENSION FUND

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