Monday September 18, 4:47 pm Eastern Time
South Africa's Amplats says strike begins
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 18 (Reuters) - South African platinum miners walked off the job Monday in a wage dispute with Anglo American Platinum Corp. Ltd (Amplats), the world's biggest platinum producer.
An Amplats spokesman said the company's two biggest mining operations, the Rustenburg and Union sections, were not immediately affected by the strike, which was scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT).
Among affected operations, 2,200 workers representing about half of the workforce at the Amandelbult section did not report for the night shift.
The smaller Lebowa and Potgietersrust mines reported their nearly 2,000 miners also stayed away.
``It's early. We'll have to evaluate the situation over the next 24 hours,'' Amplats spokesman Mike Mtakati told Reuters.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which says it represents 20,000 Amplats employees, pushed ahead with the work stoppage after talks with the company failed Monday afternoon. Union officials were not immediately available to comment on the strike turnout.
The NUM is demanding a 10 percent wage increase and improved working conditions.
Amplats, which says it has put in place measures to prevent a disruption to its annual output of two million ounces of platinum, has offered the NUM an eight percent wage increase, rising to nine percent in 2001.
Union and company officials said they were open to further talks, but there was no word on when negotiations would resume.
Amplats says the NUM represents some 14,000 of its 35,000 mine employees.
Around 730 union members work at the company's refineries, which were unaffected by the strike so far, Mtakati said.
The company Monday afternoon filed an interdict in the the country's Labour Court arguing that union members in the refining division were not covered by the strike. The court is expected to deliver a ruling Tuesday.
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