South African car industry fears impact as union starts strike

Largest South African metalworkers union calls an indefinite strike after salary talks with employer bodies fail.

South Africa’s biggest metalworkers union has launched an indefinite strike, seeking pay rises and threatening to block supplies of parts to make new cars and accessories, according to industry and union officials.

With approximately 155,000 members organised in the sector, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) on Tuesday called for a total shutdown of the engineering industry after wage talks with employer bodies reached a deadlock and arbitration failed.

“We are left with no choice but to strike and to withhold our labour indefinitely until the bosses give into our just demands,” NUMSA said in a statement.