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South Africa: National Union of Mineworkers to ask for double-digit increase in pay for miners
Gold, coal and most of platinum producers’ wage agreements will expire at the end of June, Elize Strydom, senior executive for employment relations at the Johannesburg-based Chamber, said April 18 in an e-mailed response to questions.
“The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) indicated that it would reflect on the Chamber’s proposal and reasons given for the proposal and would revert formally,” Strydom said.
The National Union of Mineworkers is losing support to other organizations including the AMCU, which is the biggest representative of workers at Lonmin, Anglo American Platinum Ltd. and Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., the three largest producers, according to preliminary figures from the companies. South Africa has the world’s biggest known reserves of the metal.
The AMCU and management of platinum companies met on March 15 to explore the possibility of negotiating directly with the Chamber, which is the case in gold and coal industries, instead of holding talks at the company level.
The union will be holding discussions with the Chamber of behalf of its 310,000 members, according to Baleni.
“I can’t say if we are going to engage in industrial action or not,” he said. “It depends on the outcome of the negotiations.”
Source: Bloomberg
