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The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is on strike at Tenneco South Africa Inc. The strike started today and all workers at the plant have withdrawn their labour. Tenneco is an automotive company based in Gqeberha and they issued NUMSA with a Section 189/A notice late last year. The CCMA facilitation started at the beginning of this year and the process collapsed on 31 March 2023 when parties could not reach an agreement. This entire retrenchment process and conduct of Tenneco management is what has provoked the strike action by NUMSA and workers in general. The reason that Tenneco introduced retrenchments was motivated by greed and by their desire to cut wages of ordinary workers by 50%. 

In this plant, the majority of workers, who are NUMSA members, earn R114 per hour. This was the target group and Tenneco management wanted the wages of these workers to be curtailed and reduced to R67 per hour or else they would face dismissals, without any form of separation benefit, which is contrary to what is required by the law. 

To add insult to injury, there are some workers who have been employed since 2015, but are currently paid R67 per hour. This group of workers has been fighting for equal pay for work of equal value. Tenneco is running away from equalizing wages hence the decision to implement section 189 and dismiss workers. We condemn the management of Tenneco for attempting to blackmail workers into accepting down varying of conditions!

As part of their rationale, Tenneco management during the CCMA consultation process cited the fact that they want to bring those earning R114 down to R67 in order to address what they call a wage anomaly which has resulted in workers earning different wages.  

While NUMSA was still in the process of communicating with members the outcomes of the last CCMA facilitated process, Tenneco management started issuing termination letters to about one hundred (100) workers. The termination letters were to be implemented immediately, this had the impact of preventing us from finalizing communication with members. In response to this provocation the total workforce of about 270 workers, mandated the NUMSA leadership to issue a notice of strike in line with the provisions of the LRA. 

Our demands are as follows: 

• A complete reversal/abandonment of the S189A notice as there is no proper justification for job cuts, as demanded by the LRA.
• We demand the immediate reinstatement of all 100 workers who have been dismissed. 
• We demand that the rate of R114 per hour for the dismissed workers must be retained.
• Equalization of rates for all employees doing the same work as those earning R114 per hour.
• This is an indefinite strike and it will continue until all demands are met. 

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

Issued by NUMSA Regional Secretary Eastern Cape Mziyanda Twani