NUM lauds ‘peaceful’ striking workers as it meets with Northam
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – As National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) union leaders meet with Northam Platinum bosses under the auspices of the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Monday, the union appealed to workers – currently in their eleventh week of striking at Northam’s Zondereinde platinum mine, in Limpopo – to remain disciplined and refrain from violence.
“We call for discipline among all workers who may undertake industrial protest to buttress their demands in the platinum belt, particularly in the area of Rustenburg, and ask… that the right to life be respected and protected by all workers, unions, the employer and government,” it said.
The NUM stated that the “peaceful, bloodless legal strike in the platinum sector”, which began on November 3, demonstrated that workers and unions could undertake an effective peaceful industrial action.
It would continue to support workers’ right to fight “poverty wages and appalling working and living conditions” using all organisationally viable means and legal avenues.
“Killing, intimidating and displacing fellow workers does not advance this cause. These are only characteristics of vigilante unionism which does not safeguard our demands or weaken the employer,” the union held.
The union’s most recent demands, which it tabled at a CCMA meeting on December 7, amounted to an average increase of 16% in wages and a 69% increase in the living-out allowance.
But the world’s fifth-largest platinum producer said in a statement last week that this remained unaffordable for the company and was “out of kilter” with the settlements reached in the gold sector and between unions and several other platinum producers.
According to Northam, the company had lost R500-million in revenue as a result of the strike, with the loss in wages for Zondereinde employees having reached R100-million.
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