Strikes at Impala, Aquarius knock output

Allan Seccombe | Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:32
[miningmx.com] -- A strike at Impala Platinum’s Rustenburg operations continued on Wednesday, and another platinum producer, Aquarius, reported an illegal stoppage at its underground operations at Marikana and Kroondal mines.

Only Impala’s Rustenburg operations have been affected by the strike, which the company contends is unprotected, but the National Union of Mineworkers reckons is legal. Rustenburg is a million ounce per year operation so the strike is derailing production of roughly 4,000 oz

Impala and NUM agreed a 10% wage hike, but workers rejected a settlement with the company on Monday. Impala management is meeting the union on Wednesday morning to find out what the sticking points are.

A union official told Miningmx workers were unhappy about the living out allowance which impacts on transport and housing benefits.

"We said on Sunday we would take the offer from the company back to our members. At the consultation on Monday they rejected it and now there's a strike. They said it's too low and there are issues with the housing and transport subsidies," said Eddie Majadibodu, head of the NUM delegation talking to Impala.

Meanwhile, Aquarius told the market on Wednesday three quarters of its underground operations had been negatively affected by an unprotected strike called because of a dispute between the main underground mining contractor Murray and Roberts Cementation (MRC) and its workers.

The strike comes despite a wage settlement of 10.2% agreement between MRC and NUM on 21 August. The strike notice was subsequently withdrawn, rendering this strike unprotected and opening the way for dismissals.

“An ultimatum has been served on employees to return to work, failing which the contractor is entitled to terminate employment,” Aquarius said.

“In meetings with management a number of employees have already indicated that they wish to accept the settlement and return to work,” it said.”In the event that MRC proceeds with the dismissals, there will be an impact on production at Kroondal and Marikana, while employees are engaged and deployed to these operations.”

Aquarius will mill stockpiles and major maintenance has been pulled forward from October to this week.