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It is the end of the road for the Bridgestone SA plant in Port Elizabeth and its 252 workers, with the closure of operations and the plant closing scheduled for November 15.
On Tuesday, Bridgestone SA CEO Jacques Fourie announced the closure of the tire manufacturing plant.
Fourie had announced in August that closing the business was imminent, with a Section 189 downsizing process underway.
“The proposal to close the plant was not taken lightly and the impact on employees has been considered from the beginning,” Fourie said.
Bridgestone SA has seen its financial performance under pressure in recent years, strongly affected by a variety of economic conditions and industry factors.
Chief among these changes in the industry, Fourie said, was bias (crossply) Industrial and off-road tires manufactured at the Port Elizabeth plant will be phased out of the market as a result of a growing trend in the production and use of radial tires globally.
“The unfortunate reality is that the plant simply cannot produce the radial tire that the industry is rapidly moving towards.
“Upgrading the factory to produce radial tires would have required an investment in a completely new plant of billions of rand, which is not feasible or justifiable under any circumstances, especially in today’s economy,” he said.
Concerted efforts, including the sale of the factory to investors, had not been successful.
National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) Secretary General Irvin Jim said the Bridgestone closure was “part of the bloodbath of job loss that workers and their families have been experiencing.”
Jim said it is for this reason that “the government must do more to intervene in the economy and create jobs by building our manufacturing capacity in the country.”
“We have been participating in the Section 189 process to deal with the job losses that will result from this.
“The real tragedy here is that this company played a critical role in promoting and growing the local economy.
“What is even more concerning is that 252 families will be adversely affected by poverty caused by job losses at a time when our economy is not creating jobs.
“Additional support must be provided to workers and their families during this time,” Jim said.
A few days after Fourie’s announcement in August, Eastern Cape Prime Minister Oscar Mabuyane said he would do everything in his power to ensure that the Bridgestone factory did not close.
Mabuyane said the provincial government was unwilling to see the factory shut down and was exploring ways to keep it running in order to save jobs.
On Tuesday, Mabuyane spokesman Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha submitted questions to fund MEC Mlungisi Mvoko.
Mvoko said discussions with Bridgestone were ongoing since the announcement was made.
“It was very clear that it was a situation that could not be salvaged,” Mvoko said.
“Bridgestone made it very clear that they have had losses for the last five financial years in terms of performance.
“It was a situation that we could not save as a provincial government, even if we put incentives.
“They had already decided that changing their machinery and incorporating new technology would have been too expensive.
“We did our best and the situation is sad because many people are losing their jobs,” said Mvoko.
Fourie said the company was aware of the impact the closure would have on the lives of Port Elizabeth employees and had “Committed to mitigating the impact of the proposed closure.”
He said fair severance packages would be provided and “where possible skills will be reassigned.”
The group said it was still committed to southern Africa, noting that its British manufacturing plant in the northwest would continue to be fully operational.
Bridgestone SA employs more than 2,000 people.
HeraldLIVE
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