AMCU workers to strike at Sibanye’s South Africa gold mines
Nearly 14 000 workers of gold miner Sibanye-Stillwater will down tools at its South African gold operations this week, after months of wage negotiations with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) reached a deadlock.
The gold miner confirmed on Monday that AMCU members would embark on a protected strike from the evening shift on Wednesday.
AMCU represents about 43% of the 32 200 people that Sibanye employs at its South African gold operations.
The affected operations will include Driefontein, Kloof, Beatrix, the Cooke shafts, as well as health services, property services, the South African region and corporate office, protection services and the Gold Academy, AMCU said in a statement.
Sibanye earlier this month reached three-year wage agreements with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity and Uasa.
AMCU is demanding an increase of R1 000 a year, while some of the negotiating gold mines are offering R650 for the first year, R700 for the second year and R825 for the third year.
“The average basic wages for category four to eight employees have increased by more than 65% since Sibanye was unbundled from Gold Fields in 2013. This is significantly above inflation and represents a very real improvement in the standard of living of our employees.
“The current wage agreement reached with NUM, Solidarity and Uasa is again well in excess of inflation, but takes the longer term sustainability of the gold operations into consideration,” the miner explained.
Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said it was “disappointing” that AMCU had chosen this course of action, especially ahead of the December holiday period, noting that the strike would have financial consequences for employees and their families.
AMCU has indicated that it will hold a press briefing later in the week to expand on its intended strike action.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation