Trade union Solidarity on Tuesday submitted an urgent application to the Labour Court requesting the court to deliver a ruling regarding the validity of Lonmin’s withdrawal of Solidarity’s recognition rights.

The court was also requested to restore Solidarity’s rights pending the legal process.

Solidarity and trade union Uasa claim they are being “kicked out” by Lonmin’s executive management and that their rights to represent employees who work for the platinum miner have been terminated.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Solidarity general secretary Gideon du Plessis said that Lonmin broke its agreement with Solidarity, signed in August 2014, as well as its promise to Solidarity that its recognition rights would be protected.

“Initially, an open letter was directed to Lonmin CEO Ben Magara, followed by a personal letter. The outcome of this resulted in discussions between Solidarity and Lonmin’s management. During these discussions, Lonmin abdicated its responsibilities and indicated that Solidarity should attempt to reach an agreement with [the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu)] and, if Solidarity failed, then Lonmin would join the discussion,” he said.

In the end, he noted, Amcu did not want to give up its “winner-takes-all” rights, and Lonmin did not want to partake in any further discussions.

Solidarity said it would also approach the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration this week regarding an application to be accepted as a significant role player at Lonmin, in terms of Section 21 of the Labour Relations Act, and to attempt to restore its members’ Constitutional right to belong to a trade union of their choice.

According to Du Plessis, Solidarity has signed a cooperation agreement with Uasa.

“In terms of this agreement, these two unions that represent the majority of Lonmin’s skilled employees will act in coalition at Lonmin to restore our members’ constitutional right to freedom of association,” he said.

Should Lonmin still refuse to reverse its ill-considered decision, or should the court not deliver a favourable verdict, it would mean that Lonmin’s skilled workers may only belong to Solidarity and Uasa in their private capacity and outside of their workplace.

Meanwhile, Solidarity is also consulting its members to obtain a mandate for further legal processes that could result in a protected strike.

“A strike is not the ideal option at a company that announced this week that it was going to terminate the services of more than 1 100 employees, including contractors, before Christmas.”