Striking workers at a Mercedez-Benz plant in South Africa walked out this week concerning a dispute surrounding paint shop practices, it has emerged.
The lightning strike saw 1,600 workers walk out at the plant in East London 17 May with staff returning this Tuesday, with union sources claiming a dispute in the paint shop led staff to down tools.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“We have agreed to go back to work – we believe [someone] from Germany wanted to change working conditions,” National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) president, Cedric Gina, told just-auto. “That is what we are not going to accept.”
The NUMSA president said workers objected to being asked to leave their overalls in the paint shop before going outside in order to keep them clean.
“Our workers said they have worked there for more than 20 years and it has never been like that,” said Gina. “The workers got wild because the manager wanted to discipline them – the whole plant said if you want to discipline them you might as well discipline all of us.”
A spokeswoman for Mercedes-Benz confirmed to just-auto from the South African capital of Pretoria there had been a change to procedure in the East London plant.
“Where [there] are certain rules and regulations for the wearing of protecting equipment [those] rules often get reviewed,” said the spokeswoman. “There was a change to the rules.
“The paint shop is a very sensitive environment to the processes we use – the rules are there to protect plant quality.”
Mercedes-Benz added prior to what it referred to as the “unprocedural strike,” there had been no major industrial action at the plant for more than 20 years.
