Motor Industry Bargaining Council (Mibco) general secretary Tom Mkhwanazi says he “is positive” that the industry will “avoid a strike this year”.

“I think parties will get to the point where they will say it is not to the benefit of employers or employees, looking at the country’s economy and the situation we find ourselves in.”

Mibco would have already hosted three rounds of negotiations between motor industry employers and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) by the end of June.

Mibco facilitates wage negotiations in the motor retail, service station, service and repair, and components manufacturing industries, among others, acting as an impartial party.

Mibco negotiations run separately from negotiations between Numsa and vehicle assemblers, which kicked off in June. A third, separate negotiation process discusses wages in the tyre manufacturing industry and is also getting under way.

The automotive industry, as a collective, faced 34 days of strikes in 2013 as Numsa and various employer parties thrashed out a three-year wage deal. This year sees an end to these wage agreements.

Working out a new three-year deal could prove difficult.

Mkhwanazi says Numsa wants to realign the negotiation process and include the components industry in the assembly industry negotiation process, while the union also wants wage negotiations with oil refineries and distributors to move to the Mibco process.

However, the automotive industry appears less positive about such a move, as it will group big multinational oil refineries with small dealerships or repair shops, for example.

The argument is that these companies have different needs, notes Mkhwanazi.

Numsa also wants a one-year wage agreement, instead of a three-year agreement, to allow for the realignment process to be completed, he adds.

Wage demands from Numsa at Mibco include a 20% wage increase, medical aid benefits where the employer contributes 80% and the employee 20%, and a R5 000 housing subsidy.

Employee organisations, such as the Retail Motor Industry Organisation and the Fuel Retailers’ Association, have not yet placed any counter offer on the table, says Mkhwanazi.

Numsa is currently the only union at the negotiating table at Mibco, with other unions requiring 5% employee or employer numbers, as well as a nationwide presence, before being allowed to participate.

Model Needs Refining
The process of collective bargaining was not always one of “one size fits all”, says Mkhwanazi.

This is why Mibco initiated an International Labour Organisation-funded research project to look at ways in which the model “could be refined”.

The research should be completed by the end of the year.

Mkhwanazi is positive that it will be able to “help negotiations going forward” as it focuses on how to best accommodate the needs of very diverse parties within the negotiating process.

“The needs of employees are different to what they were ten years ago,” he adds.