- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: PLATINUM REFINERY WORKERS STRIKE.
- Date: 19th August 1987
- Summary: 1. GV ZOOM Street INTO sign of shaft number 6. 0.08 2. GV & CUs Miners sitting around shaft. (2 SHOTS) 0.19 3. SV Miners raising fists as they walk from mine. 0.27 4. CU Unidentified miner speaking. (English SOT) 1.46 5. CU & GV Wheel on mine shaft not turning. (2 SHOTS) 2.00 TRANSCRIPT: MINER: (SEQ 4) "Our strike here, we've got two thousand six hundred people. They're on strike, legal strike. It seems they're now going to expel these people as from today. They've given us 24 hours. So we're not sure whether those are threats or I don't know. But I think that'll be it." REPORTER: "So these people will not go back to work?" MINER: "I'm not quite sure, but according to how we do, and which is very illegal, they are going to do that... they're going to expel us." REPORTER: "Are they not afraid to lose their jobs?" MINER: "They are afraid but since they want what they want the demands they want they're just going to do that. They're going to go home, there's that possibility." REPORTER: "Are the security people trying to force you down?" MINER: "Yes they've tried, many times they came here but our people didn't attack them. (indistinct) to show them that they want to cause a conflict between us, or among us." REPORTER: "At the moment, who's working underground?" MINER: "No one. There is nobody underground now. The shaft is closed." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 3rd September 1987 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JOHANNESBURG, ORKENY NEAR JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA33TBO609MDOT46TK8FMEXCXVL
- Story Text: JOHANNESBURG, ORKENY NEAR JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Hundreds of black workers walked off their jobs in a platinum refinery on August 18 in protest against a ultimatum from the owners of the Rustenburg Refinery that the company will move to the nominally independent homeland of Bophuthatswana. Wesley Duno, a spokesman for the Chemical Workers and Industrial Union, said the company wanted to move because unions are not allowed to operate in Bophuthatswana, which means the company would not have to pay a minimum wage. The Rustenburg platinum mines produce over 83 per cent of the world's known supply of platinum and it is thought the strike could cripple production of platinum. Angry workers demonstrated outside the plant and chanted anti-government slogans and held placards supporting the mine workers' strike, now in its fifth day.
<strong>Source: REUTERS - ROB CELLIERS</strong> - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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