Ford South Africa workers returned to the production line in Silverton on Friday after management struck an agreement with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) on Thursday.
Over 3,000 Numsa-affiliated employees downed tools last week Thursday, demanding a profit-share in the company.
“The Numsa dispute with Ford South Africa, which started on July 4, has been amicably concluded. Striking employees are scheduled to return to work on Friday, July 12, to resume normal Ranger production operations at the Silverton Assembly Plant,” Ford SA said in a statement.
Despite Ford having secured a court interdict late last week, ordering workers to return on Monday, the strike continued through the week while negotiations took place behind the scenes.
Numsa said it negotiated a bonus payout of R20,000 for each worker as a “deadlock-breaking mechanism” and Ford has also agreed not to take any disciplinary action against these workers for striking illegally.
Ford said it did not regard the aforementioned bonus as a form of profit-sharing.
While Numsa has painted the bonus payment as a victory for workers, who want to benefit from the profits generated by big corporations, Ford SA leadership has previously warned that disruptions such as these can have a highly detrimental effect on the company’s ability to secure new export contracts in the future.
The Silverton plant in Gauteng is one of five Ford Ranger production hubs in the world and it currently exports bakkies to more than 180 different markets.
This follows an investment in 2021 of more than R15.8 billion to build the current-generation Ranger in South Africa, and a further R5.2 billion in 2023 to produce the new Ranger plug-in hybrid (PHEV) locally.
The factory has an installed capacity of 200,000 units annually and currently produces around 700 vehicles per day.
IOL Motoring