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South Africa: Labor unrest as miners at Lonmin Platinum engage in industrial action
The labor unrest in the mines is mainly rooted in glaring income disparities and low wages for a workforce that is largely drawn from the rural areas of South Africa.
Platinum’s spot price rose 1.5 percent on news of the strike, widening its premium over gold to more than US$60 an ounce, the highest in a month.
Lonmin spokeswoman Sue Vey said all 13 shafts at the company’s facility were not working. She said there was no indication at this stage as to why employees had engaged industrial action.
The company urged the striking miners to return to their posts, adding their action could lead to more job losses.
The Lonmin stoppage occurred during Platinum Week, an annual gathering in London of industry executives and analysts. Lonmin workers also downed tools for one day in March during a visit by media, embarrassing the company as it tried to show how it had recovered from last year’s problems.
Lonmin’s acting chief executive Simon Scott told reporters in an interview late on Monday the company would tell unions to curb expectations of forthcoming wage talks, warning it remains under pressure despite reporting robust first-half earnings.
“While the results are a significant improvement over last year, this is still not an industry that is making a lot of money. This is still not an industry that is giving shareholders a huge return,” he said.
Social tensions in the area have been further stoked by plans by Anglo American Platinum, the world’s largest producer, to slash 6,000 jobs in a bid to restore profits. That is less than half the 14,000 initially targeted but unions have still vowed to fight against the lay-offs.
Source: Reuters
