AMCU buys time in gold strike poser

[miningmx.com] – THE Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU) may wait until the new year to launch strike action in the gold sector assuming ongoing negotiations were not successful, said Sibanye Gold spokesman, James Wellsted.

Wellsted was commenting a day after the AMCU was given a mandate by members to strike after the union last month rejected a wage offer in which lowest paid workers would receive up to 13% in higher wages in a three-year agreement.

“Nothing is imminent,” said Wellsted when asked about the likelihood of a strike, adding that AMCU was cautious about calling a strike before Christmas.

Joseph Mathunjwa, president of AMCU, was quoted in a Reuters article on Sunday as saying that: “We have to use our heads, and not our stomachs’.

He added that AMCU’s next move would be decided in union structures and that deliberating over its next move was in keeping with the advent of the platinum strike in 2014. In that case, AMCU won the right to strike in 2013, but didn’t call the strike until January, 2014 – and then proceeded to down tools for five-and-a-half months.

Nonetheless, Mathunjwa’s comments, made at a rally on Sunday attended by 5,000 members, give some substance to the industry view that a strike was not overwhelmingly popular among gold industry employees.

“It is the producers’ firm belief that a settlement can still be reached, and that the majority of employees do not want to engage in industrial action,’ said Charmane Russell, spokeswoman for the Chamber of Mines which represented Sibanye, AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold in wage negotiations.

Wellsted said that AMCU might also be waiting on the outcome of its appeal to the Constitutional Court.

AMCU is appealing a decision in South Africa’s High Court which said the union had to accept the extension of a wage deal where unions representing the majority of employees had already accepted the offer.

Were the Constitutional Court to support AMCU’s appeal, it would mean the union would be able to call a protected strike at the premises of AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold which both signed a wage agreement with the National Union of Mineworkers, UASA and Solidarity on October 2.

In the event the appeal is rejected, any strike action by AMCU – which rejected the wage offer accepted by NUM at AngloGold and Harmony – would be unprotected. “It’s very clear what will happen at AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony,’ said Russell.

“Should employees proceed with industrial action, an interdict will be sought to have the strike declared unprotected,’ he said.

Wellsted said Sibanye, which did not sign the wage offer with the NUM as it wants all unions to accept it, would continue to engage with AMCU and the other representative unions.

“In the meantime, we will continue to engage with all unions to find a mutually acceptable outcome,’ he said.