Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Co. and competing carmakers shut plants in South Africa for a third consecutive day because of a pay strike.
The companies will hold talks with labor unions in Port Elizabeth today to help break a deadlock in wage talks, Chris Thexton, chairman of the Automobile Manufacturers Employers’ Organization, said in a phone interview from the city.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, representing 31,000 employees in the car industry, started the strike on Aug. 11 to demand a 15 percent pay increase, more than double the 7 percent offered by employers. The walkout is costing the industry more than 2,100 vehicles in lost production a day, according to the employers’ group.
“The wage demands will impact on our ability to sustain jobs,” Thexton said. “It also sends a message to our export markets that we are a less-than-reliable supplier.”
South African vehicle sales returned to growth in January after contracting every month for 2 1/2 years. The industry, which added 427 jobs in the second quarter for a combined workforce of 31,784, is one of the few that’s creating employment. The economy shed 61,000 jobs in the three months through June, pushing up the unemployment rate to 25.3 percent, the highest of 62 countries tracked by Bloomberg.
Union General Secretary Irvin Jim and Castro Ngobese, a spokesman, weren’t immediately available when called on their mobile phones for comment.
Toyota, South Africa’s biggest carmaker, said yesterday that its Durban plant shut as 5,728 workers went on strike, halting production of 520 vehicles a day.
South Africa’s car and car-parts industry accounts for about 6 percent of gross domestic product and is the country’s biggest manufacturing exporter.
