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2022 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

9. Collective Bargaining During and After Apartheid: Economic and Social Upgrading in the Automobile Global Value Chains in South Africa

Author : Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo

Published in: Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Collective bargaining in South Africa has received much attention against the background of the struggle by Black workers for recognition, equal treatment at work, and access to workers’ rights.

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previous chapter India’s Automobile and Textile Industries in Global Value Networks: An Assessment

next chapter Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: The Automotive Industry in Brazil

Of which three are from Germany (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen), one from the US (Ford) and three from Japan (Toyota, Nissan, and Isuzu). Isuzu took over General Motors’ manufacturing facility after the latter withdrew from manufacturing in South Africa in 2017 (Automotive Industry Export Council, 2018).

Adapted from Mashilo (2019b) based on data supplied by the National Association of Automotive Components and Allied Manufacturers and the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa covering the components manufacturing and assembly sectors (1995–2017), with changes made using aggregate data from the Automobile Industry Export Council (2020) covering the components and assembly sectors (2018–2019), data from Barnes and Black (2014) covering the tyre manufacturing sector (1995–2012), and data from the National Association of Automotive Components Manufacturers/South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference covering the tyre manufacturing sector (2013–2019).

Semi-knockdown operations involve the assembly of vehicles imported in sets of major subassemblies, components and parts partly put together from their origin.

The Industrial Development Corporation, a South African public development finance institution, has a 35% stake in the Beijing Automotive Industrial Corporation.

The so-called self-governing territories based on ethnic groups to which the apartheid regime confined the citizenship of the Africans it deprived of permanent urban residence rights.

The merger was motivated by an organising principle called ‘One industry, one trade union’ adopted by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), formed in 1985, a federation with which NUMSA affiliated immediately following its founding. COSATU terminated NUMSA’s affiliation in November 2014 following a dispute affecting the same organising principle (Congress of South African Trade Unions, 2014).

NUMSA general secretary (2000–2008), delegate to NUMSA’s launching congress in 1987 where the union adopted centralised collective bargaining as its strategy, and successively, NUMSA local organiser in Queenstown, regional education officer and regional secretary in the Eastern Cape (1990–2000).

Workers’ structural power refers to the power that results simply from their location within the economic system—such as the individual power that directly results from tight labour markets, and collective power resulting from their strategic location within a key industry. Workers’ associational power refers to the power that derives from their various forms of collective organisation—including trade unions, political parties, community organisations, and other forms of institutional representation (Wright, 2015).

NEDLAC is a quadripartite economic development and labour policy consultative body comprising the representatives of organised labour, organised business, community-based organisations, and the government.

Herman Ntlatleng (2020), former NUMSA national auto and tyre sector coordinator (2002–2009), Tshwane local organiser (1989–2002) and shop steward at Ford Motor Company (1979–1989), believes that more pressure on employers could have resulted, or still can result, in the creation of the automobile manufacturing industrywide Bargaining Council. In the same vein, Irvin Jim (2016), NUMSA general secretary (2008–present), Eastern Cape regional secretary (2000–2008), shop steward at Firestone Tyres (1993–2000), reaffirmed the union’s commitment towards constituting centralised collective bargaining along value chains.

The bargaining terms ‘Skills Level’, ‘Entry Rate’, and ‘Qualified Rate’ are used in the automobile assembly bargaining unit, while the bargaining terms ‘Grade’, ‘Minimum’, and ‘Maximum’ are used in the tyre manufacturing bargaining unit.

Previously, NUMSA auto and tyre sectors co-ordinator (1999–2002), worker at Nissan (1988–1999).

This settlement was concluded without a strike.

Automotive Industry Export Council. (2013). Automotive Export Manual. Pretoria: Automotive Industry Export Council.

Automotive Industry Export Council. (2018). Automotive Export Manual. Pretoria: Automotive Industry Export Council.

Automotive Industry Export Council. (2020). Automotive Export Manual. Pretoria: Automotive Industry Export Council.

Barnes, J. (2000). The competitiveness of the South African automotive component industry: Findings from the 1999 follow-up study. Industrial Restructuring Project, University of Natal.

Barnes, T. (2017). Industry policy in Asia’s demographic giants: China, India and Indonesia compared. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(02), 218–233.CrossRef

Barnes, J., & Black, A. (2014). The Motor Industry Development Programme 1995–2012: What have we learned? Johannesburg: ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281237290_The_Motor_Industry_Development_Programme_1995-2012_What_have_we_learned. Accessed 30 Jul 2020.

Chirwa, A. (2021, February 20). President of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. (A. M. Mashilo, Interviewer).

Congress of South African Trade Unions. (2014, November 11). Decision to expel NUMSA binding on all affiliates – COSATU. Politicsweb. https://www.politicsweb.co.za/party/decision-to-expel-numsa-binding-on-all-affiliates-. Accessed 4 Feb 2021.

Dünhaupt, P., & Herr, H. (2020). Global value chains – A ladder for development? International Review of Applied Economics, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02692171.2020.1815665

Forrest, K. (2011). Metal that will not bend: The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, 1980–1995. Wits University Press.CrossRef

Godfrey, S., Maree, J., du Toit, D., & Theron, J. (2011). Collective bargaining in South Africa: Past, present and future? Juta & Co.

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Hlatshwayo, M. (2014, September). NUMSA and solidarity's responses to technological changes at the ArcelorMittal Vanderbijlpark plant: Unions caught on the back foot. Global Labour Journal, 3(5), 283–305.

International Labour Organization. (2018). India wage report: Wage policies for decent work and inclusive growth. International Labour Organization.

Jim, I. (2016, April). Comment. Numsa News. National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.

Lamprecht, N., & Tolmay, A. (2017). Performance of South African automotive exports under the African Growth and Opportunity Act from 2001 to 2015. International Business & Economics Research Journal, 16(2), 131–142.

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Mashilo, A. (2019a). Economic and social upgrading in global production networks: The auto components sector in Gauteng. Ph.D. thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Mashilo, A. (2019b). Auto production in South Africa and components manufacturing in Gauteng Province. International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Nag, B., & De, D. (2020). The Indian Automobile Industry: Technology enablers preparing for the future. In C. V. Alex, & S. M. Ramírez Perez (Eds.), New Frontiers of the Automobile Industry: Exploring Geographies, Technology, and Institutional Challenges (pp. 301–321). Palgrave Macmillan.

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Title: Collective Bargaining During and After Apartheid: Economic and Social Upgrading in the Automobile Global Value Chains in South Africa
Author: Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-87319-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-87320-2

Copyright Year: 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87320-2_9