[miningmx.com] – WILL the fragile peace at the platinum mines last, or will the big three – Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin – suffer again before Christmas?
Northam Platinum, the fourth-largest platinum producer and the only big one where the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is still the representative trade union, is now in the second week of a strike with no sign of a settlement.
However, it looks as if the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) has missed its chance. The year is drawing to a close and with Christmas not far away it’s not a good time for a strike, especially in an industry that made world headlines in the past year because of labour unrest and prolonged strikes.
At Implats, AMCU has already obtained a strike certificate, but hasn’t used it yet. The day before yesterday it dropped its demand for a starting salary of R12,500 per month, which arose out of the Marikana bloodbath.
This is more than a negotiation ploy – it’s a step that required great emotional energy. There is now a real possibility of settlements without strikes at all three major platinum producers.
At Amplats, the dispute procedure continues, while a meeting was held at Lonmin the day before yesterday following which it will probably call in the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to start dispute procedures.
It’s only logical that workers at Amplats are tired of striking. Amplats suffered the worst among the three major platinum producers – which is ironic if you bear in mind that Amplats has proportionally far fewer contract workers than Implats and Lonmin.
Contract workers get much less payment and protection than full staff members, but are hardly able to go on protected (“legal’) strikes. The more time passes, the more unlikely becomes the possibility of a strike.
Yet, this is far from an indication that labour relations at platinum mines have improved. To see the proof of this, you would’ve had to be a fly on the wall in the Presidency when Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe met with the forum for a sustainable mining industry last Friday to discuss the progress since the Framework Agreement about this was signed between the mining unions, the Chamber of Mines and the government three months ago.
There are two aspects that stood out, a friend who was a fly on the wall, said after the meeting. The first and overriding aspect is the strong animosity between the NUM and AMCU. This was so bad that it was actually impossible to make significant decisions, despite the statesmanship of Motlanthe to keep the two opposing groups under control.
“The enmity certainly worsened, and the different unions are moving further and further apart,’ the fly said.
Frans Baleni, NUM’s general secretary, demanded that AMCU must leave the meeting because AMCU still refuses to sign the Framework Agreement for a sustainable mining industry.
Baleni’s attack is perhaps understandable, because this was a week after yet another NUM shop steward was murdered in Rustenburg, but AMCU has also lost leaders in this way in the platinum war.
Joseph Mathunjwa, AMCU’s president, explained that a signature on paper can’t bring about peace. Peace is a way of life.
Motlanthe’s approach was to disregard Baleni: AMCU’s mere presence at the meeting showed that it identified with the aims of the agreement. No one would be asked to leave the meeting, Motlanthe, himself a former NUM general secretary, said.
The fly felt it took considerable statesmanship on the part of Motlanthe to handle the matter in this way.
Baleni then said AMCU must sign the agreement before the next meeting. If it does not do so, NUM would no longer participate in the process.
Baleni has a problem: Over the past year he lost at least 120 000 members in the mining industry. It is still officially the majority union at gold mines, but a walkout could easily hasten its demise.
For Mathunjwa, Baleni’s threat sounded more like a promise.
Gideon du Plessis, general secretary of Solidarity, rather rashly proposed an amendment to the Labour Relations Act that would bring an end to the controversial principle in trade union rights that gives a majority union the right to force minority unions completely out of a workplace.
Mathunjwa had a sharp answer: The wage agreement concluded by NUM and Solidarity with gold mines is enforced on AMCU’s members at gold mines on the basis of the majority principle. “Don’t come crying because I use the same principle in platinum mines,’ he said.
The second part of the meeting was a presentation by Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Finance, on the effect of the labour unrest of the past year or more on the economy. He listed lower growth rates, downward adjustments to the country’s credit ratings, endless efforts by the ministers and the Treasury to prevent the credit ratings being lowered still further. He also pointed out the deadly impact that the end of quantitative easing in the US would have on investments in South Africa under these circumstances.
“All of us sitting here are losers because of what is happening in the mining industry,’ Gordhan said as he concluded his speech.
The fly said that anyone who was not profoundly moved by this is either blind or deaf, or both. “NUM and AMCU are so blinded by ideology and their hatred of each other that they did not hear any of Gordhan’s words,’ the fly said.
If NUM manages to force an increase of more 10% from Northam and AMCU does not go on strike itself, AMCU could be vulnerable and lose the support it received at platinum mines in the past year.
However, this will result in workers starting to support the so-called worker committees. This, in turn, would be a huge, huge boost for Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters.
Hold on, Northam, hold on!
