Solidarity Message to the workforce of automotive supplier Tenneco in Gqerbha in South Africa
7 May 2023: Dear colleagues The International Coordination Group (ICOG) of the International Automotive Workers' Coordination declares its solidarity with the workforce of the automotive supplier Tenneco in Gqerbha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in the struggle against the dismissal of 93 colleagues and against the planned 40 percent wage cuts.
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Tenneco claims that only then can the company remain competitive. With this argument, companies always try to gain the workers' understanding for an increase in exploitation, whether through wage cuts like at Tenneco, an extension of working hours, the abandonment of health protection or an increase in the intensity of work. When workers go along with this, it sets off a downward spiral, with other plants following suit.
Workers must instead start from their own interests, their class interests. They are not responsible for the capitalist crisis chaos and do not want to pay for it. Instead, the question is to abolish the whole profit system with its competition. We therefore also call on the NUMSA union to reject the wage cuts in principle instead of still accommodating the management.
Online video meeting of International Coordinating Group of International Automotive Workers Coordination on Sunday 7 May 2023, with participants from India, Germany, Philippines, South Africa
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