[miningmx.com] – THE Associated Mineworkers & Construction Union
(Amcu) said resolution of the strike called at Lonmin’s Marikana mine hinges on
agreement to the single demand for a R12,500 monthly basic salary.
“We can’t sign any agreement without the mandate of the people or their will. The
workers mandated us on August 16 that Lonmin should agree to a R12,500/pm. No
other mandate has been given since then,’ said Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa.
Strike action has been underway at Lonmin’s operations since August 10 and is
threatening the future viability of the Marikana mine in particular, according to
Lonmin. In the meantime, the UK firm is also thought to be mulling a $400m to $1bn
rights offer aimed at shoring up its balance sheet as bankers fret about the platinum
producer’s ability to repay debt.
Mathunjwa also repeated the union’s decision yesterday not to sign a peace accord,
adding that his union was not responsible for the violence perpetrated at the Marikana
mine in which some 34 miners were shot by police in one day.
Mathunjwa’s comments come on the same day that labour minister Mildred Oliphant
urged the union to sign a peace accord, according to an article by BDLive. Speaking
on the sidelines of the National Economic Development & Labour Council (Nedlac)
annual summit in Boksburg, Oliphant said that Amcu would be invited as “an
observer’ in the peace process underway at the mine.
The union’s treasurer, Jimmy Gama, provided some colour to the peace accord,
however, saying that Amcu had been told that it would be required to “sit on the
sidelines’ of negotiations, even if it was a signatory to the accord.
Amcu represents about 7,000 workers at Lonmin’s mines, most of which are drawn
from the Karee mine. The union has organisational rights at the mine, but it does not
speak for enough workers to demand representational rights.
The peace accord, which is seen as a prelude to negotiations on salaries and work
conditions, was signed on September 6 by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM),
the United Association of South Africa (UASA) and Solidarity.
Mathunjwa, who repeatedly distanced his union’s activities from the strike called by
the Lonmin miners, said he had been burnt by false promises from Lonmin in the past.
“We have been used by management before, when we were sent to the mountain
[koppie near Marikana] to say one thing while the union offered another, leaving us
with rotten egg on our face. The accord flies in the face of fairness.’
He also declined to identify exactly how Amcu would communicate with its members
regarding a call by Lonmin that labour return to work on Monday (September 10). “We
never called a strike. The workers put themselves where they are; it is up to them [if
they want to return to work],’ he said.
