South African Strike Shuts Down Auto Manufacturing Plants

A South African union group arranged a one-day strike to raise the national minimum wage which shut down several vehicle manufacturing plants.

Many of the country’s automotive plants were shut down, including Ford, Toyota, and BMG, according to Bloomberg. The strike was called by South African Federation of Trade Unions, which is a group of 30 bodies representing almost 800,000 workers. The group said the hourly minimum wage of 20 rand ($1.61) amounted to “slave labor.”

Thousands of South African union members marched in Johannesburg on Wednesday to protest the proposed national minimum wage, report Reuters.

This strike also disrupted public transportation in some of the nation’s main cities.

Last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa negotiated the minimum wage when he was deputy president and hailed it as a victory for worker rights, reports Bloomberg.