Title: The Lion Match Factory: when work disappears
1The Lion Match Factory when work disappears
2(No Transcript)
3UND
The Lion Match Factory
http//www.durban.gov.za/urbanstrategy/publication
s/maps/dbn1.pdf
4- the Lion Match Company first took up residence
in Stamford Hill Road in 1900 - by 2002 the turnover was R 193.1 million
- had a local market share between 85 and 95 per
cent - making matches is an extremely labour intensive
job, but by 2002, the Durban branch of the Lion
Match Company closed down the factory leaving 385
employers with the choice of either unemployment,
retrenchment or relocation - the Factory now stands empty and barren.
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5- Mr Ashwin Cheerkoot
- worked for the Lion Match Factory for seven
years. - moved to Pretoria to work in the Rosslyn
Factory, but came back to Durban after two
months. - having worked there for a significant amount of
time, had managed to work his way up to a job in
management. - he believes that the closing down of Lion Match
was due to the mismanagement of funds and not
Eskoms electrification drive. - now works for Steincraft, a gardening company
in the Phoenix Industrial Park
6- 36, worked for Lion Match for fourteen and a
half years - started as an apprentice fitter and turner, and
three years later, he qualified as a professional - moved to the machine building section and
thereafter to the Factory proper where he worked
as a fitter and turner and rendered his service
for maintenance - then moved between department, starting with
the splint section, then packaging/heads and
eventually when the Factory closed down, he was
the production foreman - after the closure remained unemployed for one
month and three weeks, during which his family
depended solely on the income of his spouse. now
works for GUD Filters, where he is still a
production foreman, but feels that the company
would be far more efficient and remunerative if
it were to be automated.
Mr. John Doe
7Mr Ashwin Dayanand
- 33 worked at Lion Match for 13 years
- first applied for an apprentice at the factory
as a fitter and turner - worked as a machinist in the engineering
department where they would make shafts, cams,
and pushes - moved to the factory, as a shift fitter and
stayed there for four year - became the senior fitter in charge of the night
shift - after three years, he moved to the main factory
as a production foreman, until the closure - remained unemployed for a significant period,
but through HMS, a labour broking company he was
able to get a job at Sasco - six months later through Capital Contract, one
of the larger labour brokers in Natal, he got a
job at the Toyota- Mobeni and then Prospecton. - applied for a job as a fitter at Mondi. Here
he earns twenty Rand less an hour measured up to
the rate at Lion Match.
8Management at Lion Match asserted that the reason
for closure was a result of Eskoms
electrification drive. However, on closer
inspection, it was actually a case of
mismangament. When workers went on stirke in
1996, the enitre uinionised work force was
dismissed..
9The union then took the Company to court claiming
that it was an unfair dismissal. If Lion Match
had lost the case, in which case they did, they
had to pay their workers a severance as well as
offer them jobs back at the plant. However, they
sold Lion Match at a figure that would
substantiate the settlement. Moreover, in the
process of consolidating the two factories, the
Management at Lion Match, Durban had to show that
the plant was running at a loss. In turn they
had spent millions of rands on maintenance and
renovating
10In the new economy it becomes so much easier to
use information technology as an excuse to
justify downsizing. But at the same time it is
also unjustifiable to place all hopes of
re-employment on the rise of information
technology