The union had neglected that sector effectively. The big sectors of political plants in engineering and auto, they were pushing, they were making demands. The motor workers were an add-on. There were no resources allocated to them.’ Thus Tony Ehrenreich, a former national motor coordinator, remembers the motor sector before 1990, despite its 50 000 members making up a quarter of the union's membership. In that year, the union's central committee identified motor members as the most poorly organised, and as urgently needing attention

Background to motor sector

When the union belatedly turned its attention to overhauling the National Industrial Council for the Motor Industry (Nicmi) and revitalising the union's presence in the sector, it faced strong opposition from employers and established white unions. In 1993 the motor industry employed 179 000 employees in 17 691 mostly small firms, employing about 10 to 16 workers in urban areas and about five in rural areas. Many large component manufacturers, including Bosal, SKF, Smiths Industries, Dorbyl and Bosch, were accessible to organisation, but they were not typical. The retailers, such as the McCarthy Group, Saficon, Malbak, Imperial, Barlow Motor Holdings, and Combined Motor Holdings were the most powerful in the industry and employed about 120 000 workers.

Historically, Micwu had organised these workers. Its strongest membership was in Natal and the Western Cape, where it organised coloured and Indian artisans and clerical workers. Coloured workers dominated in the Western Cape because of the government's coloured labour preference policy and South Africa's Indian population lived primarily in Natal, where Micwu recruited Indian clerical workers. Numsa inherited this regional bias, together with a growing number of African unskilled garage workers, particularly in the Transvaal, who fell outside closed shop arrangements for established unions on the industrial council.

Nicmi covered workers of all races, although few Africans were artisans, and divided them for negotiating purposes into five ‘chapters’. Chapter one was for petrol station and repair shop workers, panel beaters and workers in spares outlets; chapter two for workers in vehicle body building; chapter three comprised workers in component manufacturing; chapter four was for workers in automotive engineering; and chapter five was for vehicle reconditioning.