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Gold sector déjà vu as wage talks deadlock

All the other unions, including the sector’s majority union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), have agreed to the latest offers from Sibanye Gold, AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold. This will put to the test the Chamber of Mines’ plan of refusing to sign its own offer until all four unions are on board.

Conversely, it will also allow Amcu to exercise more power because it has a larger membership base at Sibanye than it had the last time around.

Amcu treasurer Jimmy Gama said the wage proposals, which differed somewhat between the three companies, were “pathetic”.

The union, which speaks for 31% of gold employees, has a certificate of non-resolution from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, and members would decide whether to go on strike, he said.

The NUM represents 52% of the sector, but lacks the crucial majority at Sibanye.

This means the deal will bind Amcu with AngloGold and Harmony, but possibly allow it to call a protected strike at Sibanye, which it could not do in 2013.

The union has long contested the membership figures at the gold mines, but has also railed against the collective arrangements that render its dominance at some key mines meaningless.

Last year, Amcu lost a court bid to allow its members to strike at the individual operations of gold producers where it is the majority union.

“Amcu is the strongest union in the most important operations of these three employers,” Gama told reporters on Friday.

“We are controlling the main production areas of these employers. When Amcu decides to go on strike, I can tell you that there will be no production coming out, even if these other unions do not [strike].”

Elize Strydom, the chief negotiator at the Chamber of Mines, said a strike at AngloGold and Harmony wouldn’t be protected once the three unions signed the agreement.

This meant workers would not be protected and could be disciplined or even fired for striking.

Amcu is unlikely to go down that route, leaving Sibanye as the wild card.

At Sibanye, the NUM represents 43% of employees, while Amcu has 42% of the workers at the mine. There is no clear majority and the number of workers unaffiliated to a union outnumber the minority unions Solidarity and Uasa.

The mines offered to increase guaranteed pay by as much as 32%, to between R13 728 and R14 611 a month for entry-level mine workers over the course of three years, they said in a joint statement.

While the final resolution of the deal remains uncertain, the NUM has also threatened to call for a strike at coal mines after failing to reach a deal in the concurrent talks for that sector.

While the gold sector’s woes have been much publicised, coal mines are evidently the ones feeling the heat, with a 10% reduction in their labour force this year. But about 50% of coal workers are contractors, making successful strikes in that sector far less likely. – Additional reporting by Bloomberg


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