A protest at Ford South Africa is looming due to the company’s refusal to pay out bonuses to its employees.
Ford is an American multinational automaker with its headquarters located in Dearborn, Michigan. Locally, the company has a multi-billion-rand assembly plant in Pretoria’s Silverton where the Next-Generation Ford Ranger is being produced for the domestic and export markets. The company also has an engine plant in Gqeberha’s Struandale.
The company, according to its website, employs 4,300 employees at the two South African assembly and engine plants.
According to a US publication, The Detroit News, Ford Motor Co. announced in February that it will pay profit-sharing bonuses to its workers. It said it will pay, on average, $10,400 (R193,500) to hourly autoworkers. This pertains to workers in the US for the financial year 2023.
48-hour notice to strike
Ford South Africa has been given a 48-hour notice to strike. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) stated that the strike is scheduled to occur on Thursday.
The Ford workers’ strike comes after the retrenchment announcement by Mercedes-Benz South Africa. One of the major automakers in the country, Mercedes-Benz SA announced that it will be laying off some staff members in September.
Andrew Chirwa, Numsa president, addressed more than 3,000 workers on Tuesday at the Quarterly General Meeting. There, workers expressed their anger as Ford is trying to deny them bonuses.
Chirwa said Ford failed to reach an agreement with Numsa at the conciliation hearing. The hearing was held on June 11 at the CCMA offices in Pretoria.
“After picketing rules were concluded, the commissioner issued the certificate to strike. Numsa has given Ford an opportunity to rethink its stand, but to date they have not come to the party,” said Chirwa.
He stated that the reason for the strike is that Ford is refusing to share its profits with workers.
Not sharing profits with workers
“Our members are the creators of wealth, and Ford has greatly benefited from the sweat and labour of its workers. Ford management pretends not to understand the demand. They keep claiming it is ‘impermissible’. And they claim that workers have no right to demand bonuses. We reject this with the contempt it deserves.”
According to Chirwa, Ford has the capacity to build approximately 720 cars per day.
“For the last four years, Ford Global has made a fortune. They can afford some kind of a bonus. We reject their reasons and justifications for refusing to share the profit with workers.”
He added that macrotrends revealed that in 2023, their gross profit for the 12 months ending March 31, 2024 was $25.137-billion. This was a 0.45% increase year-over-year.
Ford made huge profits, pays US workers bonuses
“In 2023, gross profit was $25-billion, 2022, gross profit was $23-billion. In 2021, during lockdown, gross profit was $21,69-billion.”
