Category Archives: Mining Sector

Lowest liveable wage the crux, says Vavi | Labour | BDlive

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UNIONS must ditch any wage talks based on percentage increases, even if they are in the double digits, and instead make a co-ordinated push for a nationwide minimum wage, suspended Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Monday.Speaking in his personal capacity at a National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa Numsa rally in Randburg, Mr Vavi said unions should push the state to implement what is calculated to be a minimum liveable salary of R4,500 a month.

“We must talk about money; when unions receive 9% or 7% this is misleading every time, and we are opening the gap between workers and these bosses,” said Mr Vavi.Mr Vavi’s comments to striking workers in the automotive retail sector come during a rancorous strike season that has seen unions push for, and in some cases receive, double-digit increases.Some 70,000 Numsa members in the automotive retail sector, which includes petrol pump attendants, auto-body workers as well as workers in the component manufacturing sector, downed tools on Monday after negotiations with the Fuel Retailers Association and the Retail Motor Industry Organisation deadlocked.

Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim encouraged non-Numsa affiliates to join the strike and said the strike would continue indefinitely, until the union’s demands, for among other things, a double-digit percentage pay increase, were met.Earlier, Numsa spokesman Castro Ngobese said the union was holding marches around the country to urge employers in the sector to return to the negotiating table.Numsa is demanding double-digit increases, improved shift allowances including a night-shift allowance of 20%, and an afternoon shift allowance of 15%.In the vehicle manufacturing sector, Numsa members returned to work on Monday after getting a multi-year double-digit wage increase of 11.5% for this year and 10% for both next year and 2015.

In the gold sector, a strike by the National Union of Mineworkers NUM came to an end on Sunday night, when striking workers at Harmony Gold returned to mineshafts. The NUM had signed off on a wage deal of between 7.5% and 8.5%.Gold producers on Monday reported that all operations across the sector had normalised. But NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said the union was “unhappy with the propaganda” being put out by producers, saying workers at Harmony Gold operations were still not keen on the revised offer.

via Lowest liveable wage the crux, says Vavi | Labour | BDlive.

BERNAMA – Wage Talks In South Africas Gold Mining Sector Collapse, Strike Looms

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Wage talks in South Africas gold mining sector, held under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration CCMA in Johannesburg, have collapsed and strike action in the sector looms.On Wednesday, the employers, the Chamber of Mines, gave unions a revised offer, which the National Union of Mineworkers NUM and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union Amcu have formally rejected.

The Chamber of Mines had given the unions a 12 pm deadline to either reject or accept the offer. The spokesperson for gold producers, Charmaine Russel, said Thursday the implications of the rejection of the offer by the two unions, could spell disaster for the industry.The NUM has confirmed that their members will embark on industrial action next week.Union Solidarity has accused employers in the gold sector of negotiating in bad faith. It says employers have created the biggest labour relations dispute in the countrys history.

Employers were scheduled to meet with the union Thursday morning to negotiate further but Solidaritys General Secretary, Gideon du Plessis, said they were made to wait for two hours and were later issued with a certificate of non-resolution without any explanation.Meanwhile, workers at Petra Diamond Mine in Kimberley in Northern Cape Province have become the latest group to down tools on Thursday. They are demanding a 15 per cent salary increase while management is offering 10 per cent.More than 250 NUM members picketed outside the mine, while brandishing placards and trade mark sticks.Thursdays strike action came after talks between the workers and management deadlocked last week.NUMs Kimberley branch chairperson Michael Mabele said the workers were looking for 6,500 Rand about 629 USD as a minimum wage, 100 per cent medical aid and then again 15 per cent for those who are already on the R6,500 scale, but the employer had rejected the proposed terms.

The mines communications manager, Gert Klopper, said the strike had negatively affected production. Klopper said whenever there was industrial action it would impact on operations and they did not have exact numbers available now.Whatever strike action the unions embark upon will affect operations and there will be a major impact on the economy, he said.

via BERNAMA – Wage Talks In South Africas Gold Mining Sector Collapse, Strike Looms.

EFF plans to ‘agitate’ for higher mineworkers’ pay | Labour | BDlive

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THE Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the new political party led by former African National Congress (ANC) Youth League chief Julius Malema, is to target mineworkers as its primary constituency and says it will “agitate” during this year’s wage talks for a minimum wage of R12,500.

There is already much anxiety that mining wage negotiations will be marred by labour unrest and violence with unions having made unprecedented demands. The EFF’s intentions can be expected to further inflame tensions and heighten these risks.

The EFF, which this weekend held a national assembly of representatives from around South Africa, also unveiled its logo, which along with a fist, a spear and the map of Africa, features a mining headgear, leaving no doubt as to what its focus will be. Among its key policies are nationalisation of the mines and banks.

EFF spokesman Floyd Shivambu said in an interview on Monday the inclusion of the mining headgear on the logo “symbolis es our commitment to reclaim South Africa’s mineral wealth … which constitutes the core of our political programme”. The party will be formally launched on August 17 — one day after the first anniversary of the Marikana massacre — at a rally in Marikana.

At the weekend assembly, worker leader Xolani Nzuza, who played a central role in the workers’ committee set up to negotiate with Lonmin during last year’s strike, is reported to have been “paraded prominently” as a leader of the EFF. In an interview on Monday, Mr Nzuza said he had joined the EFF because “there are many things that this organisation will change, such as our working conditions”.

Many mineworkers were asking him for membership forms as they still felt angry about last year’s events, he said. “The president of the country labelled the Marikana workers as hooligans, while Julius Malema came to speak to us.”

via EFF plans to ‘agitate’ for higher mineworkers’ pay | Labour | BDlive.