Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Commodities - The Coming Bull Market -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: craig crawford who wrote (592)	7/23/2001 6:07:27 PM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1643

Monday July 23, 6:51 am Eastern Time S.African miners begin vote on Thursday strike biz.yahoo.com By Allan Seccombe JOHANNESBURG, July 23 (Reuters) - Thousands of South African gold and coal miners began voting on Monday on a proposed strike from Thursday over pay, the National Union of Mineworkers said. ``The voting has started. It will take the whole day and we will know tomorrow after we've collated all the results,'' said Moferefere Lekorotsoana, the union's spokesman. Mines affected by the strike include those owned by AngloGold , Gold Fields and Harmony , South Africa's three largest gold producers. Miners in the Carletonville area started voting from early in the morning, he said, and workers in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal were to start in the afternoon. No times were available for Mpumalanga and the Johannesburg area. If the workers vote to go on strike, the NUM would give the mining companies a 48-hour notice of strike action. The Chamber of Mines said talks would formally resume with the NUM on Tuesday, but informal discussions had been held with the union over the weekend. ``On some mines there is a smaller chance of strikes than on other mines because of the position of some of the mines and their wage scales, which might be at a higher level and can pay increases,'' said the chamber's spokesman Frans Barker. ``There is a chance that at quite a number of mines the strike can be averted,'' he told Reuters. The union, which represents about 170,000 gold miners and 20,000 in the coal sector out of a total mining workforce of more than 500,000, is demanding a higher base salary and an annual wage increase of 8.5 percent in each year of a two-year deal with the gold companies. The NUM wants pay for entry-level employees to start at 2,000 rand ($242.9) a month from the current industry minimum of 1,200 rand per month level now. The companies are offering nine percent for the lowest category employees and between 7.25 percent and 7.5 percent for all other mineworkers. In the second year the companies are offering between 7.25 percent and 10.8 percent. ``Some of the mines are looking at the minimum wage issue very carefully to see how they can get to 2,000 rand because they don't want to affect the viability of the mines or jobs. Many are looking at that over a period of time,'' Barker said. Negotiations are also deadlocked on medical benefits and leave in some gold operations, while the collieries are stuck on wages, benefits and meal intervals. The last major labour action on South African gold and coal mines was in August 1999.