Amcu to resume talks with leading gold miners

SOUTH Africa’s Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) will return to wage talks with gold producers after walking out last week, its chief negotiator said yesterday.

“This deadlock does not imply that Amcu has abandoned the wage negotiations or that it intends to embark on a strike action,” Amcu treasurer Jimmy Gama said.

The talks come against the backdrop of rising militancy by unions in protest at the persistence of big income disparities and low wages two decades after the end of apartheid.

But South Africa’s ailing gold sector is reeling from low prices, falling production and rising costs that have combined to make its margins razor-thin.

Gama said the union would pursue direct talks with producers in meetings scheduled for today and tomorrow.

If those reach a deadlock, he said Amcu would pursue negotiations under a government mediator, a legal requirement before it could call a strike.

Three other unions remain committed to the collective negotiations with AngloGold Ashanti, Sibanye Gold, Harmony Gold and two smaller producers. The industry had been hoping to get agreements at the same time with all four unions.

Amcu’s demands are the highest. It wants a more than doubling of wages for its lowest-paid members against offers of raises of up to 13 percent.

Gama also said Amcu still took issue with producers’ claims that archrival the NUM was the majority union. Amcu says it is the biggest. The numbers matter because past deals worked out with the biggest union have been imposed on others. – Reuters