Numsa to picket outside Comair’s offices and renews call for CEO to resign

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) says it will meet with the management of Comair, its CEO Glenn Orsmond and the business rescue practitioners on Tuesday to discuss the fate of the airline. It also wants feedback on the progress of securing a funder.

The union will also be picketing outside the premises of Comair while the talks are going on inside the building to highlight their concern for the employees’ jobs.

Numsa said its members are concerned about rumours of the airline’s possible liquidation.

Comair suspension

This comes after Comair voluntarily grounded its operations on 1 June until further notice, as the business rescue practitioners (BRP) tried to raise capital following cash flow problems.

The airline blamed Covid-19 lockdowns and the resultant travel bans for its financial distress.

However, Numsa disputed this as “other airlines are operating in the same environment as Comair but are doing so efficiently and profitably”.

Last week the union met with Orsmond but said it was unhappy with the answers he gave to their questions.

According to Numsa, Comair’s suspension can lead to the loss of more than 1,200 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs.

“Numsa represents about 700 Comair employees out of approximately 1,200 and we call for management to fix their mess and return the airline to its operations,” the union said in a statement. 

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Calls for Orsmond to resign

Numsa believes that Orsmond, the business rescue practitioners and poor management are the reasons for Comair’s problems.

“We continue to call for the immediate resignation of Glenn Orsmond and an immediate end of the business rescue process, which is only enriching the practitioner’s personal bank balances by making him richer at our expense,” the union said.

Compiled by Lethabo Malatsi