Strike to hit power supply

[miningmx.com] — Strike season is intensifying, with new industrial action in the coal sector potentially threatening SA’s power supply.

Workers in the sector will go on strike following failed wage negotiations, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday.

“We have deadlocked. We have received a strike certificate and we are going on strike,” spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said. The strike could limit exports and threaten supplies to power plants that rely on coal for almost all of their power. Eskom has said it has enough coal in stock to last 41 days.

On Thursday, the NUM would give employers the necessary 48-hours notice of the strike and would discuss the date of the strike with its 150 000 members in the coal sector, he said.

Seshoka said the talks deadlocked after employers offered a final wage increase of seven percent. The union was demanding 14%.

“We cannot accept that. We have totally rejected it because that is not according to our mandate,” he said.

The only way to increase the wage offer was to have a “powerful strike”.

“A powerful strike is a strike that lasts more than a week. It must take many weeks for a strike to work with as much members as possible.”

The NUM, the United Association of SA (Uasa) and Solidarity rejected an offer by the Chamber of Mines last Monday.

It was not known if Uasa and Solidarity also intend striking.

The Chamber represents Anglo Thermal Coal SA, Delmas Coal, Exxaro Resources, Kangra Coal, Optimum Coal and Xstrata Coal.

Unions and employers across South Africa are locked in mid-year wage bargaining, known as “strike season”, and many labour groups are seeking increases well above the country’s 4.6% inflation rate.

Workers at diamond giant De Beers in South Africa also said on Wednesday they would go on strike this week.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) wants a 15% rise in wages, while De Beers, 45% owned by mining firm Anglo American, has offered 7.5% and a one-off payment of R2 500. Unions said they would strike from Friday.

“The offers are totally unacceptable to us. We totally reject these,” said Peter Bailey, NUM’s chief negotiator at De Beers.

Since 2008, miners, factory workers, and steel workers have won pay rises averaging more than 10% a year, making themselves more expensive than other emerging market workforces.

The ANC, in a governing alliance with the unions, is loathe to put pressure on workers, fearing it could antagonise its long-standing union allies who have supplied it with millions of votes.

In a separate dispute, tens of thousands of fuel sector workers have been striking for 10 days, delaying deliveries to filling stations and sparking panic buying in the country’s economic hub around Johannesburg.

The small but influential Solidarity union, which represents skilled workers at state-owned PetroSA and petrochemicals group Sasol, said it suspended its participation in the fuel strike and its members would return to work by Thursday.

“Everyone’s interests will be best served by ending the strike and resuming negotiations in all earnest,” the union said, adding that Solidarity was likely to return to talks with employers before the weekend to reach a deal.

Other fuel unions are still consulting members on a revised pay rise offer of between 8% and 10%, although they are unlikely to accept it.

Mxolisi Ratsibe, chairperson of the National Petroleum Employers Association, an industry body, was hopeful.

“We are optimistic the end is in sight,” he said.

Police escorts are allowing some delivery trucks to get through picket lines, although scores of filling stations around Johannesburg have run dry.

Fuel industry employers include BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell, Engen, Chevron and Total.