The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has successfully defended the right to strike in the Plastics Sector. The Plastic Converters of South Africa (PCSA) went to the Labour court in Johannesburg this week in an attempt to block the national strike in the Plastics industry. The employers claimed that our strike was illegal and they have been peddling this propaganda in an attempt to victimize workers and stop them from making their demands. However, today the court found in our favour, and dismissed the application of the Employers. They lost the case.

We welcome the decision by the Labour court which confirms that the strike in the Plastics sector is a legal strike. We condemn once again the attempts by Employers in the Plastics sector to silence our members and stop them from exercising the right to strike.
 
We want to advise the employers in the Plastics sector that the only way to stop the strike is to give into the demands which our members have made. Engage meaningfully with us on these demands and stop wasting our time with frivolous legal battles. Give our members what they want today and we can settle the strike. if you do not, you will continue to bleed profits, and the industry will continue to suffer huge losses.
 
In the meantime, we will be intensifying the strike. All our regions will spend the next few days mobilizing all workers in the Plastics sector. We are once more making a clarion call to all workers in the Plastics sector to join the strike and intensify it until the Employers come to the table and make and offer that will resolve the current strike. This strike is a legally protected strike for all workers. You do not have to be a member of NUMSA in order to participate in the strike. The law protects all workers who wish to participate in the strike, and they can never dismiss you for joining this strike. We have made the employers in the sector very rich. We deserve a living wage and we reject any attempts to take away our benefits and wages.
 
This court judgment is the first victory in this battle, but we have not yet won the war. We can only succeed if all workers in the sector, regardless of whether they are NUMSA members or not, unite behind us in the demands which we are making.
Join us, we can and we will win this war!

Issued by NUMSA