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More labor woes as SA gold miners halt work
Source: Agencies |
September 11, 2012, Tuesday
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LABOR unrest spread in South Africa yesterday with a wildcat strike by more than 10,000 workers halting operations at a gold mine while few workers reported for duty in the fourth week of a violent stoppage over poor pay at the world's third largest platinum mine.
Gold Fields International said its strike started on Sunday night and that senior managers met with strikers yesterday at the west section of its KDC mine demanding the removal of National Union of Mineworkers' shop stewards and a minimum monthly wage of 12,500 rand (US$1560). Some 12,000 miners at east KDC staged a weeklong illegal strike to demand the removal of shop stewards that ended last Monday.
At a second platinum mine, Implats, 15,000-plus workers are demanding a 10 percent pay rise although they are continuing to work, a spokesman said.
Lonmin PLC platinum mine said just 6 percent of its 28,000 workers turned up yesterday morning at its mine in Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg. Mine drivers drove around looking for workers to pick up, but the buses returned empty.
In Marikana, hundreds of chanting strikers descended on one after another of the Lonmin mine shafts yesterday, carrying traditional spears and sticks. They marched for some 10 kilometers outside the gated shafts, under the close eye of armed police in riot gear.
The strikers have threatened to kill any miners or managers who don't respect their demand for all work to stop until Lonmin agrees to a monthly take-home pay of 12,500 rand, about double their current wages.
The government brokered the peace deal after police shot and killed 34 miners and wounded 78 on December 16 at Marikana, a mass shooting reminiscent of apartheid-era days that has traumatized the nation.
Gold Fields International said its strike started on Sunday night and that senior managers met with strikers yesterday at the west section of its KDC mine demanding the removal of National Union of Mineworkers' shop stewards and a minimum monthly wage of 12,500 rand (US$1560). Some 12,000 miners at east KDC staged a weeklong illegal strike to demand the removal of shop stewards that ended last Monday.
At a second platinum mine, Implats, 15,000-plus workers are demanding a 10 percent pay rise although they are continuing to work, a spokesman said.
Lonmin PLC platinum mine said just 6 percent of its 28,000 workers turned up yesterday morning at its mine in Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg. Mine drivers drove around looking for workers to pick up, but the buses returned empty.
In Marikana, hundreds of chanting strikers descended on one after another of the Lonmin mine shafts yesterday, carrying traditional spears and sticks. They marched for some 10 kilometers outside the gated shafts, under the close eye of armed police in riot gear.
The strikers have threatened to kill any miners or managers who don't respect their demand for all work to stop until Lonmin agrees to a monthly take-home pay of 12,500 rand, about double their current wages.
The government brokered the peace deal after police shot and killed 34 miners and wounded 78 on December 16 at Marikana, a mass shooting reminiscent of apartheid-era days that has traumatized the nation.
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