SACP supports workers at General Motors SA and its supply chain, denounces the disinvesting company for unilateral and bad faith conduct towards the labour movement in SA
24 May 2017
The SACP expresses its message of solidarity with the workers employed at General Motors South Africa (GMSA) and its supply chain who are facing an uncertain future as a result of the GM’s global headquarters decision to close production operations in South Africa. The SACP denounces with contempt GM’s unilateral and bad faith conduct towards workers and the labour movement in South Africa. More than ever, unions at GMSA and its supply chain need to set all their differences aside and unite for the greater good of the workers. Maximum unity in the ranks of organised labour and organising the unorganised will be essential in the imminent battle against retrenchments and adverse restructuring.
This struggle must, in the first instance, be waged at the premises of GMSA and its supply chain. Wider community and national support is also critical. The SACP pledges its unqualified support to all the workers potentially affected, regardless of which union they belong to. The SACP will support progressive interventions by the unions involved, as well as by their respective federations. This is a moment to come together, combine strengths and focus on advancing the common interests of the workers.
In order to safeguard workers jobs and prioritise employment growth, it is also important for organised labour to prepare thoroughly for engagements with Isuzu Motors. The company is set to acquire GMSA’s production facility in South Africa. Furthermore intervention by the government is going to be of crucial importance.
The decision by GM has everything to do with profit maximisation and the aftermath of the international capitalist crisis that first erupted in 2007/8 in the United States, rather than the so-called loss of confidence in South Africa’s investment environment. Due to a combination of factors including plummeting sales as a result of the crisis, GM has faced impending bankruptcy. Among others the United States government has pumped $50 billion in a bailout intervention to GM, on the condition of an intensified, aggressive restructuring on a global scale.