A gruelling 11-week strike at the R11bn BAIC auto building plant in Nelson Mandela Bay has been suspended -- but the tension is far from over in one of SA’s most historic and precedent-setting industrial protests.
Production was all set to resume next week at the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) factory after the National Union of Metalworkers of SA officially suspended the 78-day standoff.
Numsa Eastern Cape regional secretary Mziyanda Twanti said the plan was for workers to start returning slowly over the week, so that by Monday, everybody will be on the factory floor.
However, he said that when a few workers returned on Tuesday, they were told by BAIC authorities that if they wanted to enter the premises, it should be on BAIC’s terms.
They were given new contracts to sign which would mean abandoning all the demands at the heart of the strike action.
“This is illegal,” Twani said, citing the Constitutional Court’s 2023 confirmation that an employer may not implement a lockout once a trade union has officially suspended its strike.
“This will be at the top of the agenda when talks resume because we may need to ask the high court for an urgent interdict if they persist down this avenue.”
Negotiations between Numsa and BAIC are set to continue on Wednesday, facilitated by the CCMA.
The strike suspension, in effect from September 1, brings a temporary end to a historic protest action that has frozen assembly lines at the Chinese-backed automotive group since June 15.
The prolonged strike -- the second longest in SA’s history after a five-month platinum sector strike in 2014 -- has served as a high-stakes litmus test for SA’s industrial policy, drawing sharp lines between foreign investment concessions and national collective labour agreements.
The dispute at the facility — a joint venture with 65% owned by the Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) and 35% by SA’s state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) — ignited over a deep wage disparity.
Numsa’s 350 BAIC members downed tools in June after management implemented a localised R48-per-hour entry rate following factory refurbishments.
“They were earning R112 a hour when they were sent home for the month of refurbishments,” said Twani.
“When they came back, they were informed they now earned R48 an hour. And new people were hired at R40 an hour.”
The union has fiercely demanded a correction to the National Bargaining Forum (NBF) auto-sector benchmark of R121 per hour.
Because BAIC operates as a non-participant in the voluntary central bargaining council, it successfully anchored its cost model to the statutory National Minimum Wage rather than industry sector standards.
This structural loophole prompted severe warnings from organised labour bodies, including the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), which is concerned that special economic zones like Coega and ELIDZ could morph into low-wage assembly enclaves that undermine their hard-won gains.
The suspension of the strike represents a critical relief point for the IDC.
The state-owned minority shareholder is keen to resolve the impasse while balancing state policy against its multibillion-rand foreign partnership.
Critically, the return of workers to the factory floor triggers a major regulatory shift.
The employment & labour department, which concedes BAIC’s R48 hourly rate is technically compliant with baseline laws, had refused to deploy inspectors to probe separate union complaints regarding poor occupational safety, a lack of protective equipment, and missing injury coverage while the strike was active.
Department officials are now expected to execute an intensive compliance blitz on the factory floor with operations resuming.
For the domestic automotive market, the restart enables BAIC to address severe inventory backlogs.
The 11-week freeze has bottlenecked supply chains, stalling deliveries for the flagship Beijing X55 Plus crossover, the rugged B40 Plus 4x4, and the newly launched B30 hybrid SUV lines.
But while the suspension allows assembly lines to move again, Twani emphasized that the truce is a strategic pause rather than a permanent settlement.
“The struggle continues,” he said.
BAIC management was approached for comment but had not done so by print deadline.
