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South Africa: Labor unrest as miners at Lonmin Platinum engage in industrial action
South African workers of the world’s third largest platinum producer Lonmin have engaged in industrial action, halting all of the company’s mine operations and reigniting fears of unrest that rocked the industry last year.
The platinum belt towns of Rustenburg and Marikana, which saw labor unrest at Lonmin and other platinum producers last year, are a flashpoint of labor strife with tensions running high over looming job cuts and wage talks
Further complicating the picture is a turf war between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which has lost many of its members to the AMCU.
A spokesman of the National Union of Mineworkers said Tuesday’s industrial action appeared to stem from workers’ anger over the weekend murder of a member of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.
According to police, a 46-year-old man “alleged to be the regional organizer of AMCU” was killed in a Rustenburg tavern on Saturday when an assailant shot him four times with a 9mm pistol.
The share price of Lonmin slid almost 7 percent and the South African currency – (the rand), hit 3-week lows, as investors worried about a repeat of 2012’s labor turmoil, which hammered platinum and gold production and triggered credit downgrades for Africa’s largest economy.
“Peace and returning to normal production in our mining industry is absolutely critical to our economy so I’m hoping that everybody sits down together and solves their problem,” South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday in Cape Town, reacting to the latest Lonmin stoppage.
