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14 November, 2005
ICEM affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) won a labour court ruling late last month against Continental Tyre. The court ruled the company must reinstate 40 workers who were retrenched at a Port Elizabeth factory in July.
The unilateral decision by the company to curtail weekend shift operations and manpower in some areas of the plant last summer brought ICEM intervention with the German Works Council of Continental.
In a separate decision also issued in late October, a South African Labour Department inspector determined that Continental violated the Employment Equity Act that seeks to correct racial imbalances left over from the apartheid era. The inspector found that Continental’s policies have failed to assimilate blacks and whites into common work practices. The Port Elizabeth tyre factory employs 1,200.
Meanwhile in Germany, IGBCE has won a year’s reprieve for 500 Continental Tyre workers at the Stücken plant in Hannover. The plant was scheduled to close at the end of 2006, but ICEM’s German affiliate convinced the company to keep the plant operating until December 2007.