South African Tyre Workers March Against ‘Captains of Industry’

Strife within the South African tyre industry continues with an estimated 4,000 workers expected to attend a protest march on September 20. NUMSA, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, has planned for the disgruntled employees to assemble at Jarhaman Hall in Korsten, Port Elizabeth to, as spokesman Mphumzi Maqungo explains, “hand over a memorandum of demands to tyre manufacturers' ruling oligarchy." According to Maqungo, the “throng” of workers anticipated to take part in the protest include those working for “imperialist owned Firestone, Continental and Goodyear.”

“This march forms part of the strategy to exert pressure to the captains of the trye (sic) manufacturing industry to accede to workers demands for improved conditions of employment and decent wages,” said Maqungo in a press statement.