SOUTH AFRICAN trade unions joined manufacturers yesterday to call for government action on the crisis in the steel industry.

In a statement issued following meetings between several ministries, unions and employers on Friday, revolutionary union federation Cosatu urged the ANC government to increase import tariffs to protect jobs.

The meeting was prompted by transnational Arcelor Mittal’s announcement that it was considering closing its plant at Vereeniging, a town south of Johannesburg.

Cosatu called for the firm’s South African operations to be nationalised.

Also present were non-Cosatu affiliate unions Numsa, Mewusa, Uasa and Solidarity, along with industry federation Seifsa and the CEOs of Evraz Highveld Steel, Cape Gate, The Scaw Metals Group and Macsteel Coil Processing.

Earlier this month Cosatu issued the National Economic, Development and Labour Council with a formal notice of protest action over the crisis.

Cosatu said that the crisis was caused by the global economic slowdown leading to lower demand for steel.

But it added that the problems were exacerbated by cheap steel imports, particularly from China.

The union federation said it was concerned that slowing production in the crucial mining sector due to low commodity prices would cause more harm to jobs, since mines are major consumers of steel.

“Cosatu therefore supports calls by the steel industry for government to increase import tariffs to save the steel industry and the jobs.

“We further call on government to engage the Chinese government to introduce voluntary export restraint” — a measure used to protect the clothing and textiles industry in the early 2000s.

The federation also demanded three key commitments from the steel industry.

The first is an end to import parity pricing — whereby locally produced steel is sold at the same price as imports — and not revert to it when economic conditions improve.

The second is a moratorium on redundancies “to allow social dialogue aimed addressing the challenges facing the industry.”

The third demand was a to cut “obscenely high executive salaries in the industry while workers are forced to live on a pittance.”

Other Cosatu recommendations included a ban on recycling scrap and export taxes on strategic minerals.