[miningmx.com] – LONMIN lifted the veil on its troubled negotiations with the Associated Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU) saying the union had asked to represent an employee category in which it does not have support.
There is also disagreement regarding an AMCU demand that the implementation date of agreed wage increases is moved three months earlier to July 1 from October 1. Although Lonmin has agreed to this demand, it has asked that it become effective from 2015 in order to allow all parties to adapt to the change – a condition rejected by AMCU.
These are the sticking points preventing a new union recognition agreement between Lonmin and AMCU, and which has led to an ultimatum by AMCU that may result in strike action by June 15 at Lonmin’s facilities if its demands are not met.
“The strike is the preferred option,’ AMCU treasurer, Jimmy Gama, told Bloomberg News earlier today. “It’s upon the company to realise that it doesn’t help them to try and protect the minority union at the workplace,’ he said.
In terms of AMCU’s ultimatum, it will ask Lonmin for a meeting on June 10. If no deal is reached, then the union will issue a strike notice and may stop work from June 15, Bloomberg News reported.
Lonmin confirmed that while AMCU had 70% representation over employee categories 4 to 8, which include rock drill operators and miners, and grouped into Collective Bargaining Forum 1 (CBF1), it has much less support in another category, the Collective Bargaining Forum (CBF2). This consists of employees in grades B and C and who are mostly skilled workers, supervisors and artisans.
Notwithstanding this lack of significant support, AMCU wants the right to bargain for skilled employees in CBF2 and unskilled workers in CBF1.
Lonmin termed AMCU’s demand as “problematic” partly because rival unions – Solidarity, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and UASA – have binding recognition agreements with employees in the CBF2. “Amcu effectively demands the right to collectively bargain for all employees, including those in CBF2 where AMCU does not enjoy significant support,” it said.
Lonmin also clarified a report by Beeld, republished on Miningmx, in which NUM shop stewards had been suspended for fraudulently altering stop orders of AMCU members so it looked as if they had transferred their membership to the NUM.
Lonmin said it had investigated about 150 reported cases of alleged fraudulent stop orders. “Lonmin has a zero tolerance policy towards fraudulent activities and a full investigation has resulted in the suspension of eight employees against whom disciplinary proceedings have been instituted,” it said.
WATERSHED MOMENT
Lonmin spokesperson, Sue Vey, said the purpose of the announcement by Lonmin was to address confusion in the market about the status of negotiations. It does, however, achieve other things.
Given that AMCU has played its cards and seems interested in calling strike action, Lonmin is seeking to show that it is illegal to dissolve existing agreements in CBF2. “AMCU can call a strike but Lonmin has sufficient legal recourse,” said Vey.
This would mean AMCU will almost certainly be calling an unprotected strike which raises the stakes in respect of its own standing. “This is the watershed moment that we’ve all been waiting for,” said Vey.
Speaking to Bloomberg News, James Motlatsi, one of the founding members of the NUM, suggested that AMCU would lose members if it failed to deliver results. “The reality of the matter is AMCU hasn’t delivered anything for those mineworkers,’ Motlatsi said. “If you can’t deliver they will say “bye bye,” he told Bloomberg News.
