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Workers assemble a vehicle as operations begin after flooding in April shut down the Toyota South Africa Motors plant in Durban on August 16, 2022.
Business and labour are concerned about the impact the loss of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) could have on the automotive sector.
They convened for the second day of talks at the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) Bargaining Conference in Sandton yesterday.
The three-day gathering is a platform for union members to consolidate their wage and other benefit demand positions across the various automotive sectors.
Toyota CEO Andrew Kirby weighed in, highlighting the possible impact losing AGOA could have.
“Our first concern (on) AGOA (is) if we lose that opportunity to export to the US, we will lose around 7% of our total manufacturing base, which is material and significance. The steel tariffs in the US and the discussions globally will not have too much of an impact…What is important is that we have a local competitive steel industry.”
The talks at the conference also centered on the production downturn in the manufacturing and mining industries.
Former Public Enterprise minister, Alec Erwin, called on the union to do its research.
Mineral Resources and Petroleum Minister Gwede Mantashe says the mining sector needs to be innovative.
“Therefore, let’s try to get South Africans to invest in ArcelorMittal. It can be allowed to close. State must participate I agree. But our people, South Africans, must take an interest in the sector.”
From the discussions, it is clear that labour, government and business agree the problems facing workers needs to be jointly solved.
Numsa Bargaining Conference | Business, labour concerned about the impact of losing AGOA:
