Business
South Africa: Hopes for end to labor unrest as mining union – AMCU meets
Thousands of miners at a mass rally called by South Africa’s Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) mining union were given a program on Monday that included “back to work arrangements”, signalling the possible end to the longest work stoppage in the history of the country’s mines.
The rally’s schedule is the clearest sign yet of an end to the 5-month stoppage and follows the three main producers – Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin – saying the most recent round of wage talks had seen “further progress towards a return to work”.
The spot price of platinum fell 1 percent.
In a series of mass meetings in early June, members of the AMCU accepted wage offers “in principle”, while introducing new demands that producers said were unaffordable.
About 70,000 AMCU members downed tools in January at mines run by Amplats, Implats and Lonmin to demand that their basic wages be more than doubled to 12,500 rand (US$1,200) a month.
In their latest offer the producers said they would increase pay by about 20 percent, or 1,000 rand (US$96) a month.
The work stoppage has hit 40 percent of global production of the precious metal used for emissions capping catalytic converters in automobiles in addition to pushing the South African economy into contraction in the first quarter and has so far cost the companies almost 24 billion rand (US$2.25 billion) in lost revenue.
