Amplats and SA miners reach deal
Source: Agencies |
October 28, 2012, Sunday
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WORKERS have reached a deal with Anglo American Platinum to reinstate 12,000 miners sacked for an illegal strike, which could end the last big industrial action rocking South Africa's mining sector.
Months of often violent wildcat strikes have cut production in the platinum and gold sectors, raising concerns about slowing economic growth as well as awkward questions about President Jacob Zuma's management of the most damaging labor strife since the end of apartheid in 1994.
"They agreed to reinstate all the dismissed workers on the provision that they return to work by Tuesday," Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said yesterday.
Seshoka said he expected workers would return to their posts and "that will mean the end of the strike."
Anglo American Platinum, or Amplats, said in a separate statement it had reached the deal with unions and offered sweeteners such as a one-off hardship payment of 2,000 rand (US$230) to facilitate the return. The strike has lasted six weeks and crippled production.
"Employees who do not return to work on Tuesday ... will remain dismissed and/or be subjected to the illegal strike disciplinary action and will not be eligible for any of the benefits mentioned above," it said.
While tensions may be winding down at Amplats mines, police in the platinum belt city of Rustenburg were reported to have fired rubber bullets and used stun grenades at a labour rally yesterday to separate NUM members from other workers fighting a deadly turf war for support.
South African media said the clash took place about 120 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. Police said they could not confirm the incident.
The Amplats deal comes after Cynthia Carroll, chief executive of parent Anglo American, announced her resignation on Friday. She had come under pressure over the firm's lagging share price and dependence on strike-hit South Africa.
If the workers do return to Amplats, Zuma will have likely weathered a labor storm that threatened to cause problems for him as he seeks re-election as leader of the ruling African National Congress at a party meeting in December.
If Zuma wins the race to lead the party that dominates South African politics, he will be on a path to remain the country's president for another term - lasting until 2019.
Zuma has called on strikers to return to work, pledging to speed up an infrastructure program to improve living conditions in the mining belt. Critics see this as symbolic.
The president has come in for criticism for not responding faster to the August 16 police killing of 34 strikers at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, the bloodiest security incident since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.
Months of often violent wildcat strikes have cut production in the platinum and gold sectors, raising concerns about slowing economic growth as well as awkward questions about President Jacob Zuma's management of the most damaging labor strife since the end of apartheid in 1994.
"They agreed to reinstate all the dismissed workers on the provision that they return to work by Tuesday," Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said yesterday.
Seshoka said he expected workers would return to their posts and "that will mean the end of the strike."
Anglo American Platinum, or Amplats, said in a separate statement it had reached the deal with unions and offered sweeteners such as a one-off hardship payment of 2,000 rand (US$230) to facilitate the return. The strike has lasted six weeks and crippled production.
"Employees who do not return to work on Tuesday ... will remain dismissed and/or be subjected to the illegal strike disciplinary action and will not be eligible for any of the benefits mentioned above," it said.
While tensions may be winding down at Amplats mines, police in the platinum belt city of Rustenburg were reported to have fired rubber bullets and used stun grenades at a labour rally yesterday to separate NUM members from other workers fighting a deadly turf war for support.
South African media said the clash took place about 120 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. Police said they could not confirm the incident.
The Amplats deal comes after Cynthia Carroll, chief executive of parent Anglo American, announced her resignation on Friday. She had come under pressure over the firm's lagging share price and dependence on strike-hit South Africa.
If the workers do return to Amplats, Zuma will have likely weathered a labor storm that threatened to cause problems for him as he seeks re-election as leader of the ruling African National Congress at a party meeting in December.
If Zuma wins the race to lead the party that dominates South African politics, he will be on a path to remain the country's president for another term - lasting until 2019.
Zuma has called on strikers to return to work, pledging to speed up an infrastructure program to improve living conditions in the mining belt. Critics see this as symbolic.
The president has come in for criticism for not responding faster to the August 16 police killing of 34 strikers at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, the bloodiest security incident since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.
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