Workers fear job losses amid move to decarbonisation

With South Africa soon finalising a strategy to support the transition to electric vehicle manufacturing, according to the President, workers are deeply fearful of losing their jobs amid the move towards decarbonisation.

This comes as the BMW Group announced that it will be spending R4.2 billion over five years to prepare its local manufacturing plant for the production of the hybrid BMW X3 which will be exclusively manufactured in South Africa at BMW’s Rosslyn plant in Pretoria from the second half of 2024.

President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that while there are fears that the move towards decarbonisation will result in job losses, BMW’s plans for “job retention, reskilling and training on electro-mobility will provide certainty to more than 20,000 employees at the company’s facilities across the country”.

“Working in partnership as government, business, labour and civil society, we have to ensure that the transition to new forms of production is managed in a just, equitable manner,“ he said.

According to BMW Group South Africa they intend to implement a plant-wide training programme for the new model.

“In addition, more than 300 BMW Group Plant Rosslyn associates will receive specialised training to support the production of the next-generation BMW X3 Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle,” plant director Dr Niklas Fichtmüller said.

Cosatu said while they welcome the investment as a positive development, workers are deeply fearful of losing their jobs as the country moves to a Just Energy Transition.

“We have an unemployment rate of 42.6% and higher for young people. We have seen many sectors retrench workers and shed jobs, in particular the mining sector. Workers are fearful of losing these jobs. Whilst change is inevitable, we need to ensure that it does not send any worker to the unemployment queue, or create ghost towns.

“Business is solely focussed on profits. It needs to work with government and unions to ensure workers are re-skilled and absorbed into jobs when their jobs are at risk. While we support moving to clean energy, we need to do so at a pace that does not see power stations close prematurely when we have a crisis of generation shortage,” Cosatu said.

The Motor Industry Staff Association (MISA) Chief Executive for Strategy and Development, Hermann Köstens said they do not foresee any job losses because this production line will run separately from the combustion engine manufacturing line.

“The one will not replace the other. Globally, the automotive future is looking increasingly to electric vehicles. On the 14th of February 2023 the European Parliament approved to ban all internal combustion vehicles by 2035. To date, the European Union has been South Africa’s biggest market.

MISA fears the country risks being unable to compete on an international scale. This is a situation where both the automotive industry (manufacturing of vehicles) and the retail motor industry (sales and after-care services) need to adapt to make room for electric vehicles or be doomed to be left out of an evolving global transition,” he said.

Cape Times