[miningmx.com] – NORTHAM Platinum suspended operations at its Zondereinde mine – which accounts for 65% of total group production – amid claims of intimidation of workers who ignored a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) call to stop work earlier this week.
Both NUM and the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU) is represented on the mine. Asked if there was any inter-union rivalry at play, Northam CEO, Paul Dunne, declined to comment.
“This protracted work stoppage is a little bit out of whack with operational issues that have been raised,” said Dunne. The NUM’s communique regarding the stoppage relates to disciplinary procedures affecting two employees.
Said Dunne: “We would dearly love for the workforce to return to work, and that it take these issues and follow the clear processes. Always with these things there’s window of opportunity to resolve it quickly, and that window is not closed yet”.
The NUM has also voiced its opposition to Dunne at Northam Platinum. In a statement on the NUM’s website, the union’s spokesman Livhuwani Mammburuu said Dunne “has a history of dividing workers and unions” which was practised while at Impala Platinum.
Said Dunne: “I won’t comment on those statements at this stage. Our understanding of issues raised are very operational”.
The platinum producer estimated that it would lose 1,000 ounces of platinum group metal production daily equal to about R11.5m a day at current metal prices. Employees would forfeit wages and benefits totalling R2.4m a day.
Dunne said that ore stockpiles in front of the mill at Zondereinde had been depleted as the Christmas period had just been completed. However, the metal in process amounted to about “several weeks worth” of material, he said.
Northam announced earlier today that it had decided to shut the mine “… owing to incidents of intimidation, assault and threats of violence towards non-striking employees and damage to property on 15 January 2015”.
Developments at the mine are a worrying rewind of last year in which intimidation of miners was alleged to have been a feature of the five-and-a-half months strike called by AMCU.
The fact that it would appear as if it’s members from the NUM who have engaged in intimdiation points to an increase in militancy among the ranks of labour in South Africa.
Northam said its management continued to engage with the NUM in an effort to “normalise” operations as soon as possible. It urged the NUM to “… take heed of the Peace and Stability Framework for the Mining Industry, signed in February 2013”.
NUM members went out on strike at Zondereinde on January 13 in a dispute that includes Northam’s recruitment, disciplinary and leave policies. Northam won an urgent court interdict ordering workers back to work.
About 40% of Northam workers returned to work on January 15. Northam employs 6,600 permanent employees and about 2,100 contractors.
Employee salary and benefit losses amounted to just over R10bn during the AMCU strike which labour market commentators estimated would miners between one and two years to recover economically.
This is the second bout of industrial action in a year at the mine. Nearly a year ago to the day, the NUM ended a 75-day strike at Zondereinde agreeing to a two-year salary package of between of between 8.5% and 9.5%.
