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South Africa: Gold mine owners, unions reach pay deal
Convincing workers to accept the deal will be a major test of NUM leaders’ credibility.
As of Wednesday morning, tens of thousands of gold workers remained on strike.
Company representatives at AngloGold Ashanti said 24,000 workers at all of its six mines in South Africa were still away from work.
And while the agreement covers a majority of gold mines, but some remain outside the centralized agreement, including smaller firms like Gold One.
The firm fired 1,435 people — more than 75 percent of its workforce — at a gold and uranium mine near Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The deal is also unlikely stop unrest in the equally economically vital platinum sector, which sees wage contracts negotiated company-by-company.
Mining powerhouse Anglo American announced it had fired 12,000 workers at its platinum mine in Rustenburg in the north of the country.
Copyright 2012 AFP
