[miningmx.com] – ATLATSA Resources confirmed mining had resumed at its Bokoni Mines, but an outbreak of strikes at mines elsewhere this week are a timely reminder the forces behind the country’s strike contagion may only be in abeyance.
Joel Kesler, business development executive at Atlatsa, said operations had resumed at Bokoni Mines. “About 50% of the employees who were on strike (1,200) have returned and we have received 1,700 applications for vacant positions,” he said.
However, Coal of Africa (CoAL) said today it had dismissed 178 employees at its Mooiplaats coal mine, and said yesterday the strike action was imperiling the future of the mine, already the subject of cost-cutting restructuring.
Further disruption to the mine’s operations would have “… a severe impact on the viability of Mooiplaats and is likely to result in job losses, it said. The colliery directly employs 368 people of which 244 are National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members.
The unprotected strike started on December 3. Striking employees were dismissed with immediate effect on December 6. The dismissed workers comprise 48% of the mine’s total workforce, said CoAL CEO, John Wallington, who added they were affiliated to the NUM. They have been given one week to appeal against their dismissal, he said.
“The strikers were protesting against the suspension of four of their colleagues who breached picketing rules and terms of a court interdict during a protected strike at the mine in October, and were demanding that the suspensions be lifted,” said Walllington in an announcement to the JSE.
“The mine’s remaining 190 employees will return to work on December 7 to resume operation of two of its five underground sections, the processing plant and administrative functions,” he said.
An unprotected strike at Village Main Reef’s Blyvooruitzicht gold mine had been resolved by the night shift on December 6, the company said on Friday (December 7).
However, in events that worryingly recall the violence at Harmony Gold Company’s Kusasalethu in November, the strike at Blyvoor was triggered by a dispute between the NUM and the Association of Mining and Construction Workers Union (Amcu).
The news NUM and Amcu continue to fight a turf wars at various mine sites around the country comes as the Farlam Commission uncovers fierce rivalry between the two unions ahead of the Marakana masscre in which 34 miners were shot dead by police in August at the Lonmin mine.
