SA gold strike could spread – union
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SA gold strike could spread – union
By: Stewart Bailey
Posted: 2002/05/20 Mon 14:00 EDT | © Miningweb 1997-2002
JOHANNESBURG -- South Africa's gold mine workers took the gloss off a
superb day's trade for bullion and gold shares as they raised the prospect of
an industry-wide strike, which would bring the country's mining sector to a
grinding halt.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the country's largest mining union
with 300,000 members, warned that the four-day-old strike at Harmony
Gold's Randfontein mine was primed to spread across the rest of the
country's mining sectors.
The fighting talk from the union has stoked fears among analysts that the
work stoppage by 5,000 staff at Randfontein, which has brought production to
a standstill since Thursday night, would spread.
Moferefere Lekorotsoane, a spokesman for the NUM, says the
dissatisfaction among workers at Randfontein could stretch beyond the
single Harmony mine and indeed the gold sector, to other mining groups
operating in the country. He said, however, it would be up to the regional
offices of the NUM to decide whether or not to strike.
"But this is a mining industry problem," said Lekorotsoane. "There is
definitely a lot of scope for this to spread to any of the other mines in South
Africa. Imagine if other workers in the Free State, or anywhere else, decide
to take up this issue," he said.
NUM members at the mine are dissatisfied with an industry-standard R350 a
month subsistence allowance paid to staff living outside company-sponsored
hostel accommodation. The union's branch-members at Randfontein decided
last week to force Harmony to up their allowances by 329 percent to R1,500
a month, and have since rejected Harmony's initial counter-offer of R420 a
month.
Workers who choose to stay in the mine's hostel accommodation have free
bed and board and the union contends that the small stipend essentially
penalises those choosing to live outside the single-sex hostel system.
Union housing objectives
Lekorotsoane says the spur for further union action throughout the industry
could be a decision taken by the NUM's central committee in April, to focus
on housing provision as a key issue in its dialogue with management. The
first step, he says, would be for the mining groups to phase out the
single-sex hostel system and replace them with family units.
The union is also proposing mine management use its surplus land to provide
conventional staff-housing for workers. This initiative, says Lekorotsoane,
should be co-sponsored by the government.
The NUM says ending the barracks-like hostel system at the vast majority of
South African mines, would go a long way to improving the massive
HIV-AIDS pandemic, which is killing thousands of workers on the country's
mines. Estimates by some of South Africa's gold majors suggest infection
rates among their workforces could be upwards of 20 percent (one in five)
compared to an estimated 12 percent (one in nine) in the general population.
"Getting rid of the hostels will ensure that (those with AIDS) have their
families around them. It will also start addressing the fundamental issues
around HIV-AIDS," said Lekorotsoane.
Hot air
A mining labour analyst, who declined to be named, said the union was
merely engaging in public sabre rattling, and was unlikely to incite strike
action across the country's mining industry.
He said the issue of living-out allowances in the platinum and diamond
industries would be addressed later this year, when employers in those
sectors started collective wage negotiations with the unions. He said the
NUM was also likely to be mindful of the financial pressures on the coal
industry, which had recently seen a dramatic drop in prices.
"It's not impossible that it would affect the whole industry. The situation is
being monitored closely, but I doubt it will spread," said the labour analyst.
He added that some of the other major employers in the gold sector were
close to reaching agreement on the monthly subsistence allowance with the
union. |
