[miningmx.com] — THE strike at Gold Fields’ South Deep mine entered its fifth day on Friday and while the miner said it was confident of a resolution soon, the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) maintained the dispute was far from over.
Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] spokesperson Sven Lunsche on Friday said he was confident there would be a resolution soon.
“There has been no change in status; the strike is still ongoing as is engagement with the union. We are confident that a final resolution will be reached over the next few days,” he said.
However, Num spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said the union had a different view of the situation.
“The strike is going well, the negotiations are not going very well. There is a meeting today between the four branches of Num to discuss Gold Fields’ response and to decide what future action we take,” Seshoka said.
He said the most probable outcome of the meeting would be a call to all members of all four Num branches to join the strike to shut down Gold Fields’ operations entirely.
Seshoka said the union objected to Gold Fields’ all-white management.
“We want to participate and either Gold Fields has serious transformation problems or racist tendencies.”
A meeting has been scheduled between Gold Fields and Num for Friday afternoon.
While Goldfields will not release details on how much production has been lost until the strike is over, it has said that the South Deep mine is still being developed and will only reach full operating capacity in 2014.
On Thursday Gold Fields said there had been incidents of violence and intimidation.
At a meeting with the union on Wednesday, Gold Fields asked the union to restrain its members which, it has said, the union has done successfully.
However, Seshoka said the union disputed the violence and intimidation claims.
“Gold Fields is totally out of order. Police are brought in to disrupt meetings and cause violence. It is nothing but cheap propaganda to damage the union’s reputation.
“We are not aware of any incidents of violence or intimidation because they never happened,” he said.
