The prolonged strike in Rustenburg’s platinum belt serves to highlight the soundness of gold’s collective bargaining process. But the platinum belt’s prolonged strike is also putting pressure on collective bargaining as the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) set out earlier this year and then again in court more recently to migrate its brand of unionism to the gold mining industry. Strain is being put on South Africa’s labour laws that are predicated on eventual compromise between employers and employees within a sector framework. Collective bargaining is walking a tense tightrope, with AMCU threatening its future.