[miningmx.com] – THE four month strike launched by the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU) moved deeper towards vitriol today after the country’s platinum producers said they would ‘strongly oppose’ efforts by AMCU to stop them from communicating with employees.
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin said AMCU had issued an urgent application to the Labour Court aimed at preventing them from communicating with AMCU members as they sought to break the strike.
“The producers reject claims made by AMCU that any of the above actions contravene the Labour Relations Act, recognition agreements or employees’ constitutional rights,” the producers said in a statement this morning.
“The application will be opposed on this basis, and endorsement will be sought from the court for these initiatives,” they said, adding that they were merely seeking an end to the strike now in its 16th week.
“Let us hear what employees want to do,” the producers said. “The companies call on AMCU and its members to uphold the law, and employees’ right to work should they choose to do so,” they added.
The application to the Labour Court also wants to stop employers from circumventing AMCU, in which they have taken their last wage offer directly to employees, and polling workers directly for their views on the strike – a strategy which seems to have found that AMCU’s strike is not as popular as the union purports.
“The producers are seeking an end to the strike,” the producers said. “To this end the companies have tabled a fair, affordable and sustainable wage offer to AMCU.
“The companies want to ensure that employees are fully informed of the offer, and that they are empowered to accept or reject the offer of their own free will,” they said.
