[miningmx.com] – ALL three major platinum groups and the three largest gold mines will be coming to a halt on Tuesday due to a strike by the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU).
There is therefore every likelihood that all the country’s major mines will have been forced to a stop when the world’s most important mining investors meet in Cape Town in two weeks’ time for the annual Mining Indaba. The strikes will also mean that more than 70% of the world’s platinum production will be at a standstill.
The members of AMCU at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) decided yesterday afternoon to join the workers at Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin when they strike on Thursday. AMCU will deliver notices to all three these companies this morning to notify them formally that the strike will begin on Thursday morning.
The Chamber of Mines, which represented the country’s gold mines in wage negotiations last year, will also be informed by AMCU this morning that the union will come out on strike at gold mines on Thursday, AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa announced yesterday afternoon.
AMCU says that a wage agreement of 8.5% that the chamber signed with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in August after a week-long strike by NUM does not apply to Amcu’s members.
The chamber believes that the agreement with NUM applies to all unions in gold mines because NUM is still officially the majority union at gold mines.
However, AMCU represents the majority of mineworkers at the country’s three most profitable gold mines Sibanye Gold’s Driefontein and Kloof, and Harmony Gold’s Kusasalethu. AMCU also believes it has the majority of members at more gold mines and that these mines, which include Sibanye’s Beatrix and AngloGold Ashanti’s Tau Tona, will also be forced to a standstill by the strike.
Mathunjwa warned about 15,000 Amplats workers at yesterday’s meeting in Rustenburg that opponents of the union are going to try to provoke them into violence.
“There are people planted among us to provoke and taunt us. We will have to be very disciplined,” Mathunjwa said. He explained how AMCU would inform workers via its communication structures about any wage offer that the three mining groups make during the strike.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) issued a certificate to AMCU as far back as 13 November last year stating that the wage dispute with Amplats could not be resolved, and that the union was therefore entitled to come out on strike. Similar certificates were issued to AMCU in October and November for the wage disputes at Implats and Lonmin.
“We are demanding a basic minimum wage of R12,500 per month. Since the wage negotiations with platinum mines began, no progress has been made toward meeting this demand,” he said.
All the workers in the stadium voted in favour of a strike at Amplats with a show of hands. Similar meetings were held last week for workers at Implats and Lonmin.
