The mailing says we have just received the following statement from the National Union of Metalworkers South Africa (NUMSA) which describes the settlement of their strike begun on August 4 against SEIFSA, the employers federation in the metal industry; thank you to all who sent solidarity messages to NUMSA. The NUMSA statement says the joint strike committee today decided to call NUMSA members to return to work; all locals are asked to convene meetings of the shop steward councils tonight to discuss this; general meetings of workers should be held tomorrow, so that there can be a return to work by Thursday; although we did not force SEIFSA to move on money, SEIFSA gave us things which will...
The mailing says we have just received the following statement from the National Union of Metalworkers South Africa (NUMSA) which describes the settlement of their strike begun on August 4 against SEIFSA, the employers federation in the metal industry; thank you to all who sent solidarity messages to NUMSA. The NUMSA statement says the joint strike committee today decided to call NUMSA members to return to work; all locals are asked to convene meetings of the shop steward councils tonight to discuss this; general meetings of workers should be held tomorrow, so that there can be a return to work by Thursday; although we did not force SEIFSA to move on money, SEIFSA gave us things which will make us much stronger in the future. The NUMSA statement says the strike damaged SEIFSA's ability to control its members; more than 120 SEIFSA companies settled higher than SEIFSA's offer. The NUMSA statement says SEIFSA had to agree that NUMSA is the main union in the industrial council -- not the CMBO. The NUMSA statement says our strike is the only national industrial strike which has taken place in 1988; it shows that the heavy political repression has not intimidated our members. The NUMSA statement says the moves which SEIFSA has made have exposed the other unions especially the CMBO as the sell outs which they are. The NUMSA statement says many more workers will join NUMSA now; we should aim for at least 40,000 new members by the end of the year. The NUMSA statement says our organization and structures have been strengthened in this struggle. The NUMSA statement says the wage structure of the whole industry has been changed; many companies are now paying more than the R4.00 per hour minimum because of the supplementary bargaining. The NUMSA statement says SEIFSA will support SACCOLA if it calls on its members not to use the bad clauses of the Labor Relations Act. The NUMSA statement says SEIFSA will push companies to re-instate workers who were dismissed or locked-out for the legal strike. The NUMSA statement says members must go back to work peacefully; we must now go forward to build NUMSA to 200,000 members. [Note: SEIFSA is the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa.]
