SOUTH AFRICA: South African strike hits world's top platinum producers

Record ID: 341249

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: South African strike hits world's top platinum producers
  • Date: 23rd January 2014
  • Summary: MARIKANA, RUSTENBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (JANUARY 23, 2014) (REUTERS) POLICE VEHICLES AT POLICE CHECKPOINT/ BARBED WIRE POLICE AT A CHECKPOINT LOOKING AT CAR AMCU MEMBER GETTING OUT OF CAR/ POLICE SEARCHING VEHICLE POLICE WITH GUNS JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA ( JANUARY 23, 2014) (REUTERS) LABOUR ANALYST LOANE SHARP LOOKING AT BOOK HANDS ON BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (English) LABOUR E
  • Embargoed: 7th February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Business,Economic News,Employment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAD36LRC1G2W1S5X359RLKBD2UC
  • Story Text: Members of AMCU, the platinum sector's main union, put down their tools at Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin, the top three producers of the metal used in emissions-capping catalytic converters in cars on Thursday (January 23).
    South Africa's Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan was at the World Economic Forum at the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, trying to boost foreign investor relations, but labour economist Loane Sharp Adcorp Holdings said this sent a different message to investors.
    "They're completely different signals between what is happening in reality and what the government would like to happen, the Minister of Finance is completely naive, he has spoken about the impact of the strikes, he has spoken about South Africa's international reputation being at risk, yet there is no concrete government action to prevent the kind of rolling strikes that we are seeing now for eleven months of the year, I think government has lost control of the labour movement in South Africa," said Loane Sharp.
    The union, whose emergence two years ago has thrown South Africa's mining labour relations into turmoil, has as many as 100,000 members on the platinum belt, 120 km (70 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.
    It was unclear if they had all heeded the call to strike.
    It is also hard to estimate the duration of the stoppage amid recent signs of divisions in AMCU's ranks.
    Dissidents said this week they planned to form a rival union, accusing AMCU's leaders, especially president Joseph Mathunjwa, of recklessly pursuing a damaging strike they say many miners do not want and cannot afford.
    But AMCU activists in the nearby city of Rustenburg on Wednesday night (January 22) said the workers remained committed to a stoppage under the battle cry of a "living wage".
    AMCU is seeking a more than doubling of the basic entry-level wage from Amplats and Lonmin and smaller but still steep hikes from Implats. The companies are offering increases of 7.5-8.5 percent, well above the 5.4 percent inflation rate.
    "The losers are the employees who go on strike because they strike for work without pay, the losers are the mining companies who loose out on production while workers are on strike and the winners are the union bosses who enhance their reputation and who don't take any pay sacrifices while workers are on strike," said Loane Sharp.
    The firms were battered by wildcat strikes in 2012 rooted in a turf war between AMCU and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in which dozens of people were killed. They say they cannot afford big pay hikes.
    Mindful of the bloodshed and violence of the last two years, police deployed in force, especially near Lonmin's Marikana mine where 34 striking miners were shot dead by police in August 2012.
    AMCU had also planned to strike at several gold mines on Thursday but a court ruled the action be suspended pending a review of its legality.
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