Impact of 2008 global financial crisis on workers at Ford in South Africa

Neo-liberal globalization has caused fundamental changes in the world of work. This has led toamong others, job losses and erosion of union power. The actual origin of the 2008 GlobalFinancial crisis was the crises of over accumulation and over production experienced in the1970s by capitalist countries of North America and Western Europe. These crises wereeventually fixed by financialisation of capital which is a key feature of neo-liberal globalization.This study sought to examine the impact of 2008 Global Financial crisis on workers at FordMotor Company of Southern Africa (FMCSA) in South Africa. Using the qualitative researchmethods i.e. interviews and document analysis, the study focused on the workers at SilvertonAssembly plant in Pretoria as a case study. The study reveals that as a response to the 2008Global Financial crisis which had caused a decline of profitability as a result of the fall indemand of exports and export prices, FMCSA intensified the restructuring of production andintroduced new work patterns at Silverton Assembly plant. The consequences of this includeover work, loss and reduction of wages among others.At national level, National Union of Metal workers in South Africa (NUMSA) responded to theimpact of 2008 Global Financial crisis by proposing various policy options which are seeminglyreformist according to the pessimistic view of trade unionism. Conspicuously missing fromNUMSA’s response, is an explicit accentuation for a robust socialist transformation from thecurrent political economy in line with its goal of socialism. Nevertheless, from an optimisticview of trade unionism, the study concludes that the occurrence of the 2008 Global Financialcrisis was not a missed opportunity for NUMSA as it may be argued by proponents of thepessimistic view of trade unionism