The recent seven-week-long strike in South Africa’s automotive manufacturing industry was “very unfortunate”, says General Motors South Africa (GMSA) MD Mario Spangenberg.
He says labour instability is one of the red flags for the South African automotive industry moving forward.
“I’m glad it was finally settled. I hope that the stability agreed to in the labour deal is observed, and that we can move forward constructively as an industry. We need to put the industry back on the growth path.”
Spangenberg says the strike action in the assembly and components manufacturing industries has “left a bad taste in all international boardrooms – there is a lot of competition in the automotive industry in the world”.
He says it is essential that the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and government understand that “this kind of action is not constructive for effectiveness in the automotive industry”.
General Motors lost production of 4 000 Isuzu pick-ups, Chevrolet Utility bakkies and Spark passenger cars during the labour action.