JOHANNESBURG
Workers affiliated with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) embarked on a nationwide strike on Tuesday to demand better pay and a ban on labor brokers.
"It was never our intention to protest but the employers refused to heed our demands, leaving us with no option but to strike," NUMSA spokesman Castro Ngobese told Anadolu Agency.
Thousands of NUMSA members dressed in red t-shirts, some carrying sticks, sang and danced as they converged on Johannesburg's Mary Fitzgerald Square.
"We are fed up with being exploited," striking worker Malume Mongai told AA in Johannesburg. "We shall strike until our demands are met."
Mongai said that, despite rising costs of living, employers did not want to pay them a decent living wage.
NUMSA, South Africa's largest metalworkers' trade union, is demanding a 12-percent wage increase for laborers and a ban on labor brokers.
Employers, however, are only offering raises of 8 percent.
The union also wants employers to pay monthly housing allowances of at least 1000 rand (roughly $95) to each employee.
According to Ngobese, nearly 220,000 union members had joined the strike.
Similar labor marches reportedly took place in six major cities, including Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
The strike is expected to affect South Africa's automotive sector, along with iron and steel production, among other sectors.
Last week, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) ended a five-month-long strike, which had cost platinum companies some 23.9 billion rand worth of revenue and some 10.6 billion rand in workers' wages.
"’We just settled the platinum sector strike," noted Dr. Mark Ellyne of the University of Cape Town.
"It's not good to have another strike at this time," he told AA.
According to economists, labor strikes have a major impact on South Africa's national economy.
"If the strike goes on for more than a week then it will have a negative impact on the economy," economist Mike Schussler told AA.
www.aa.com.tr/en
